The New Order

by padfootjr24

After the events of fifth year Dumbledore decides that the Order needs to make some changes. Changes that will bring them all closer to the enemy than ever before. Please r&r

20. Parchments and Plans

THE NEW ORDER

By

Padfootjr24

Chapter Twenty: Parchments and Plans

"Hello Harry, care to tell your dear friend Padfoot how I died?"

"Holy shit!" Harry shouted as he nearly dropped the parchment on the floor.

Naturally the first thing that popped into Harry's head was the memory of Tom Riddle's diary. He seriously doubted that Sirius would do something similar but there was always the chance that maybe someone else had created this and was able to put it in place of the letter Sirius had left for him. Taking a quick glance back at the parchment in his hands he noticed more words had formed.

'If you're worried about the magical nature of this particular parchment, I assure you it is quite safe but if you need proof of where it came from feel free to ask the Weasley twins. They helped me create them after they fled from Hogwarts during your fifth year.' Without skipping a beat Harry jumped to his feet with the parchment clutched in his hand and ran to the fire where he pulled a small ceramic jar off of the mantle. He cast a hand full of floo powder into the flames before shouting out 'the Burrow'. He had to wait only a brief moment before Molly Weasley's head came into view.

"Oh, Harry! We were so worried when you left so suddenly." Harry could clearly hear the concern in her voice and see it on her face but he had other things to think about at the moment.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley but I can't talk right now, are the twins there?" He asked in a rushed tone.

"No dear, they went back to that store of theirs right after the reading ended." She replied disapprovingly but everyone could easily see that she was proud that her sons were doing well. Without so much as a goodbye the connection was broken with a wave of Harry's wand. Within moments the flames where roaring once again and he found himself looking into what appeared to be a storeroom. Realization suddenly dawned on him that he had yet to visit the store and he decided that he really should go take a look at the store when he had the time. It didn't really set a good example when one of the owners wouldn't even go in. he couldn't see very much but the noise that was coming through was almost as deafening as the Quiditch World Cup.

"FRED, GEORGE!" He shouted loudly when he saw no on the other end. Within moments however the two appeared and the identical grins on their faces left no doubt that they knew why he called. "What is this?" He asked simply as he held up the parchment.

"That, Harry, is the work of three certifiable geniuses." They answered together. Suddenly a loud crash sounded, drawing the twin's attention. "Just walk it off Ginny, you'll be fine." Fred shouted before looking back to Harry. "This place is like a madhouse. We manages to talk Mum into letting Ginny work here for a few days a week but I don't think she has the ability to control the crowd. From open to close it's…"

"The parchment Fred!" Harry interrupted. He of course was greatly interested in the success of the business but at the moment he had other things on his mind.

"Oh, right." Fred replied before looking as if he were trying to remember something. George on the other hand noticed that Harry was in no mood for games and quickly explained.

"It works much like the Marauders Map except it holds a lot more information, like a magical portrait. We were thinking of doing a portrait but we didn't have the time or the artistic talents necessary to do credit to old Padfoot's noble jaw line."

"Enough with the jokes. Just give me a straight answer." Harry growled and the twins quickly got the message.

""Like George said, we didn't have the time or expertise to make a portrait but then we remembered the diary from ickle Gin-Gin's first year. We figured that if You-Know-Who could store a piece of his soul in a book why couldn't we store an imprint of Padfoot's mind on a piece of parchment instead of in a portrait. You can talk to it instead of writing everything you want to say but unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to make it talk back so I hope you know how to read. Unfortunately however we weren't able to make the charms permanent. It could last a long time if you only activate it for brief periods of time every once and a while but it only has enough power to remain active for a total of seven hours. That time is the same if it is run continuously or spread out over time so be sure to turn it off when you are done at any time and only use it when you have something specific to talk about." Thinking quickly Harry tapped the parchment once again with his wand and whispered 'mischief managed' and watched it go blank once again.

"I'm sure you know enough about magical portraits to understand that they hold all the knowledge and memories of the person they were created for, up until the time it was created but it is also capable of taking in new information as well. The parchment does the same thing. Needless to say, you will probably have to explain how he died. Sirius was worried about the possibility of getting killed without being able to tell you certain things, so this is what we came up with. It was very time consuming but didn't take nearly as long as him writing a book or something of everything he wanted to say to you or Remus. The two parchments are connected in a similar fashion to matching portraits so anything you or Remus tells your parchment the other will know as well. As we said, it is the work of three certifiable geniuses." Fred finished happily but a few more crashes pulled their attention away. Harry could see their eyes go wide before they both ran off.

"Thanks." Harry responded stupidly before breaking the connection. Harry just sat on the floor beside the fire for some time before he even looked at the parchment in his hand again. This was certainly nothing like he had expected when he opened that envelope. Reading a letter from Sirius was one thing but this… He just wasn't sure he was ready to basically talk to him knowing that he had a time limit. Shaking his head firmly, he stood up and walked over to his dresser and placed the parchment in the top drawer. No, he was definitely not ready for that. To get his mind on other things he decided to work out in the gym while thinking over his latest idea. This was one that was going to take a lot of planning and preparation so it was better to get the basic concept worked out and inform everyone as soon as possible to work out all of the minor details that will be so crucial.

MMM

Tonks had been sitting up in her room for several hours now thinking over everything that had happened that day. While the death of her cousin and the reading of his Will that morning weighed heavily on her mind the majority of her focus was on Harry. She just couldn't believe that she had been stupid enough to allow something like that to happen. She was six years older than him and he wasn't even out of school yet for Merlin's sake. She tried her best to push the memories that had been coming back to her more and more to the back of her head. She tried and failed to simply ignore the annoying voice that kept whispering to her, encouraging her to try it again sober so that she could tell if it was as good as she remembered it. That was something she certainly didn't need to think about.

For every argument that she thought of for her actions the night before being wrong that damned voice was quick to answer back with arguments to the contrary. One of her biggest fears was that the others in the house would think she was some kind of a slut and she would be forced to ward off their advances. However that fear was shot down when she was reminded of the fact that everyone there knew that she didn't have much of a social life since most men were either turned off by her clumsiness or they were only interested in her because of her metamorphmagus abilities. She may not be the best at Legillimency but she could detect someone's intentions if they didn't guard their minds. These men usually didn't walk away unscathed. She had little to no patience for men that simply saw her as a very talented sex toy.

The issue that caused her the biggest discomfort about the whole situation however was the age difference. When you get older differences in age don't really matter very much. In this situation however it meant a great deal. He was, after all, still a minor. Well at least until tomorrow. However that little voice contradicted her on this as well, claiming that though legally he was only a minor, in terms of experience and maturity he was probably older than Snape. In the end she decided that she couldn't come to any real conclusions by herself so she worked up the courage to go talk to Harry since they couldn't very well be worrying about something like this. The Order was divided at the moment and unable to function as it should because of a difference of opinion and all though their situation was entirely different it could have similar consequences and that was just not acceptable.

It took her a while to find him but she finally located him in the gym. At the moment he was the only one there so she hoped that they could just jump right into the heart of the matter and get it done with. He was currently doing some bench presses but the look on his face clearly told her that he was in deep thought. As she got closer she couldn't help but notice how the almost constant work outs and dueling practice had done his body a world of good. He was by no means a body builder but the tight lean muscles on his upper arms and chest spoke of a great deal of speed and flexibility as well as strength.

She shook her head forcefully to get the sight of his sweaty chest out of her mind but when she opened her eyes again they once again sought him out. This time however she noticed more than just his muscles, she noticed the numerous scars on his torso and face, even some on his arms. Remembering how he received them was a forceful reminder that though he would only be sixteen tomorrow he was by no means a child. How many children, or adults for that matter, would bring such injuries upon themselves to save others from them? Their time in captivity was without a doubt the worst time in her life and only Harry and his actions prevented it from going much farther before they would eventually have been killed. No, he was definitely not a child.

She was pulled out of her own musings when she heard the barbell slam into its resting place and saw Harry sit up with a very wide grin on his face. He used his shirt to wipe the sweat off of his body before looking up and seeing Tonks. She was curious, even a little jealous, when he was able to push the sudden look of embarrassment away as if it were somehow insignificant. 'How does he do that?' She asked herself as she prayed that she was hiding hers at least as well.

"Care for a trip to Hogwarts?" He asked her suddenly and she quickly became very suspicious about what he had planned. Seeing the look on her face he was quick to explain. "No I don't plan to steal anything or kidnap anybody, today anyway. I've just got an idea that I'm actually going to have to run by Dumbledore and a few others before I try." This immediately peaked Tonks' curiosity since Harry had usually been adamant about leaving Dumbledore in the dark until after the fact so the fact that he was planning on informing him before hand indicated that this was probably going to be pretty big, and dangerous.

MMM

Three hours later Dumbledore's office was packed nearly to capacity. Every member of the Raiders were present with their battlerobes charmed once again but also present was Remus, McGonagall, Moody, Geoffrey Stevens, Amelia Bones, James and Lily were both wearing hoods as they stood beside their son Jacob and surprisingly Griphook was also present. When everyone had arrived they all stood looking at Harry expectantly.

"The Chamber!" He said simply to Dumbledore and the old man nodded before he asked everyone to follow him. As they walked out the door behind the old man each of them gave Harry confused, even suspicious looks as he followed along behind them. The trip to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was a relatively short one but the absolute silence made it seem like an eternity. They each walked through the door and those that did not know of the Chamber of Secrets began muttering to themselves about loony old men and insane teenagers. Harry was the last to enter and looked at Dumbledore in confusion.

"Why haven't you opened it yet? Standing around in a bathroom is all well and good when your trying to hide from Filch but not when it's this crowded."

"I can't open it Harry." He replied simply with a soft chuckle.

"And why not?"

"You haven't changed the password yet." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. When Harry just looked at him blankly he continued. "If you remember, you changed the password when you were doing research down there on the day you were captured. You came to my office to show me your findings and then went straight to Diagon Ally. You have sense not had the time to change it back."

"How did you get those books for me then? And why didn't you say something during the times I did come here over the last month?"

"Fawkes retrieved the books for me and in regards to your other visits here, I seriously doubt you would have had the time for such a simple chore while you were raiding my library."

"Oh, so you finally noticed that. I would have thought you would have mentioned something by now. The Hogwarts library was easy enough but your personal library was something different. Now that was a challenge." Harry knew perfectly well he was referring to the main library but couldn't resist letting the man know they had made it into his own library as well. Apparently he hadn't noticed yet so they were getting more out of his books than he was so no worries. Comprehension seemed to dawn on the old man's face and with a strangled gasp he ran out of the bathroom and nearly flew back to his office.

"I thought for sure he would have noticed before now." Snape muttered with a frown as he passed Dung twenty galleons. The Raiders all found the situation rather funny however the others with a few exceptions did not.

"Well he can meet us down there after he's finished sulking." Harry said with a grin as he approached the entrance. "Open up!" He hissed and those not associated with the Order jumped back in shock as the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opened wide before them. Taking out his phoenix feather wand he pointed at the portal. "Portus Afermea, Open up." He hissed out.Everyone stared as the whole area glowed in a soft blue light before it slowly faded and waited for Harry to begin again. "Portus Afermea, Raiders sacked Hogwarts." Harry said with a grin causing a few chuckles to go around the room as well as a few glares before he whispered a final world that only Moody could make out.

"Wasn't that just a little bit juvenile Mr. Potter? The Headmaster will simply change the password later on." McGonagall stated as she looked at him sternly. The raised eyebrow Harry returned was too much for Moody who let out a loud barking laugh that caused everyone to jump in surprise.

"Minerva, I don't think he has to worry about that. If I'm not mistaken that last spell he cast was a nullification charm. No spell will work on that door unless it comes from that wand." Moody informed her with a wicked grin before he lowered himself into the chamber. The others began to follow but a few weren't looking too thrilled about the idea, namely Stevens, James and Lily.

"Where does that go?" Stevens asked in suspicion.

"The Chamber of Secrets. The weekend hideaway of Salazar Slytherin, everyone's favorite Hogwarts founder and humanitarian." Harry replied with more than just a little sarcasm. This revelation didn't make the three feel any better about the situation but Stevens was fought it off and followed after Remus who had been glaring at James and Lily since he found them in Dumbledore's office when he arrived. Jacob stepped forward to go next but James quickly pulled him back. Pulling away from his father Jacob looked at his parents with an emotion Harry could identify at the moment.

"Snap out of it. Everyone else has clearly been down there several times before so what are you so worried about. If Harry was going to do something to harm you he would have done it before now. He's had enough opportunities, and motives." He said simply and before either of his parents could stop him again he jumped through the opening behind Griphook. Harry looked after his brother for a moment before looking at his parents with an emotionless expression. Without a word or gesture Harry followed his brother in and then led him and Griphook through the tunnel since the others had gone on ahead. Griphook, being a goblin was at home in such tunnels but Jacob was unaccustomed to such surroundings. Harry wanted to say something to put the boy at ease but he honestly didn't know what to say.

"Why did you leave me all that money?" Jacob spoke up suddenly when he noticed that Griphook had somehow managed to get a distance head of them. Harry thought about just staying silent but he decided not to. He knew that he would probably never really want a close relationship with his parents but he really did want to get to know his siblings a bit and this was as good a place as any to start.

"Because despite what others may feel about me, I am not a cold blooded person. Though my innocence was announced this morning there are many people who still feel I should be thrown in prison for my actions against the Unspeakables and without a doubt some will demand my arrest for what I was forced to do last night. But those people don't know a damn thing about me, and they don't want to know. They just want to hide their heads in the sand and believe what they choose. When you and your family showed up I was faced with the harsh reality that my parents were nothing like I thought they were. Nothing like I was told they were. They are the same kind of people, they believe what they chose and no one can convince them that they are wrong. When they look at you everyone can clearly see the pride and the love they have for you. When they look at me all I see is regret and nothing more. Whether they regret their decision to leave me behind or the decision to return I don't know and I don't care. Despite the hardships and pain that I suffered because of their lack of judgment and foolishness I couldn't, as your father said 'throw you out on the streets.' If it had just been them I don't know what I would have done but given the fact that they had three children with them I couldn't leave them as paupers. I knew the last name that they had used but I never thought to ask if they had kept their first names or changed it to something else. So I did the easiest thing and left it in your name. You don't exactly strike me as the type to throw money around so I figured it was the best idea. " Jacob just stared at his brother for sometime. He wanted to defend his parents from Harry's views but he realized that he could never do that. While he could easily convince him that they are kind and loving people he could never change his feelings because he had suffered first hand because of their decisions.

While it was true that he and his younger brother and sister had led a mostly sheltered life they had always been loved and taken care of. Harry had none of that and probably wouldn't know how to accept it if he received it now from someone else. Pain and suffering had been one of the few constants in his life. Though he was not much younger than Harry he found his brother to be more mature and independent than many of the adults he had met since arriving in England. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a quiet hissing coming from beside him. He turned and saw Harry charming a second door in much the same way as he did in the bathroom.

"What is that hissing you do?" He asked after Harry had finished. Harry looked at him in confusion for amount before realizing that they boy had no idea why he was hissing.

"I'm a parselmouth. Do you know what that is?"

"No, can't say I do." He replied as he shook his head.

"A parselmouth is a person that can talk to snakes, in their own language. Salazar Slytherin, the wizard that built this chamber under the school was a parselmouth so the passwords on the doors were in this particular language before I changed them."

"Then why did you bother to change it back to the hissing before you were captured?" He asked curiously after the shock wore off.

"I was working on something that neither I nor the Headmaster wanted anyone to walk in on. I changed the passwords to keep any teachers or brain dead Order members from interfering."

"Oh, that was so not helpful." Jacob said with sarcasm and Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"Then you should learn to ask your questions a little better. You should specify whether you wanted to know why I changed the passwords or what I was working on that would merit changing the passwords. Always get right to the heart of the matter any time possible and waste time with subtlety only when its needed." By this time they had made it through the main chamber and had joined the others in their conference room. Harry found it terribly ironic that the same table that Slytherin and his followers used for meetings was now being used by those planning to kill his last remaining descendant. Just about everyone was seated and looked expectantly at Harry when he walked through the door. Harry took the chair closest to Tonks on impulse which was at the head of the table with her sitting to her right while Jacob sat down in the chair across from Tonks putting him at Harry's right.

With the exception of Harry, who had his hands crossed on the table and humming to himself, the room was virtually silent. That is until James and Lily ran in, both a little winded and looked around quickly. Though their hoods were up they could all see their attention stop on Jacob before they took seats further down the table as they tried to catch their breath, Neither Harry or Remus acknowledge their presence. Not long afterwards Dumbledore arrived and he sent a stern glance over to Harry.

"I expect those books back as soon as possible Harry!"

"What, its not like you don't have them all memorized." Harry defended himself while there were several chuckles coming from down the table. "And the books we took from the Restricted Section should never have been in a school to begin with. Detailing very dark and evil magic. We were merely doing a public service to protect the children of Great Britain. With all those pages it would be a damn shame if they were to get a paper cut."

"Harry, as you well know, those books are there for students doing advanced studies." McGonagall put in as everyone, even Albus, seemed amused by Harry's answer.

"Come on, do you even know what books we took? That material shouldn't be seen by anyone twice their age much less a student."

"Then why do you have them?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Um, advanced studies!" Harry answered hopefully.

"Could we get on with this, I have better things to do, like collecting Flubberworm pus." Snape said sarcastically while he glared at the hooded form of James Potter.

"Oh, am I boring you smartass?" Harry drawled before immediately jumping to the point of the meeting without giving Snape a chance to reply. "The reason for this meeting is simple. With our recent activities most of the lower level Death Eaters are now in prison awaiting trail and the vast majority of the inner circle are in hiding where we can't get them. Another problem is that we have no way of knowing what Voldemort will do since we don't have any spies among his closet followers and if someone did…" Harry said glancing at Dumbledore. "No useful information is coming out in time for us to do anything about it. My proposal is simple. We get another spy." Everyone looked at him dumbly for several moments before anyone spoke. They simply could not believe that Harry called a meeting like this to simply say that. A few however, like Moody, Tonks, Snape and even the three Potters were looking at Harry, waiting for him to spring whatever idea he had on them.

"Harry I assure you that we have another spy in the inner circle. Unfortunately or rather fortunately, the only thing of consequence that has happened recently has been the attack on Diagon Ally, which Minerva was informed about through our spy. It would seem for the moment that Voldemort is content to just sit and wait. Although with the support he has lost recently we can be fairly certain that he will begin recruiting as soon as possible."

"But there is still a problem with planting a spy within the Death Eaters. Voldemort trusts no one. Even his own inner circle are often kept in the dark. It appears that even when myself and my friends were captured Lucius Malfoy was the only member of the inner circle that was informed. And the only lower level Death Eaters that knew were all plants in the Department of Mysteries. So what we need is someone that can get close to our dear Dark Lord and get the information we need. We need someone that Voldemort will come to depend on, someone he won't see as just another sniveling coward that follows him because of a promise of power. Someone he can't intimidate. Someone he will be forced to see as an equal and most definitely see as a threat to his power later on." Harry finished with a grin as everyone looked at him as if he were insane. If someone were to go to Voldemort with such a goal in mind they would surely be killed for their attitude almost immediately but the way Harry said it made it almost seem possible, almost.

"That's a pretty hefty resume Harry. You obviously have someone in mind so who is it?" Tonks asked and Harry's smile only got wider as everyone stared.

"Me!" He said simply and every jaw in the room hit the table. He had to force himself not to fall on the floor laughing at the wide eyed looks he was getting. Almost at once everyone began shouting. As everyone tried to make their opinions heard Harry just sat down and began humming to himself once again. Tonks, who had actually remained seated, just stared at Harry with wide eyes. Almost as an afterthought Harry reached over and lifted her jaw to force her to close her mouth. That seemed to snap her out of it and she immediately looked away while trying to fight off her blush. Apparently getting tired of the excess noise, Dumbledore began shooting brightly colored sparks into the air. When this didn't work he actually shot the sparks in a pattern at the people around the table. This quickly got their attention as they jumped back to avoid getting singed.

"Now that we are all calm I think it would be best if we were to discuss this in a productive manner." He said in a stern tone that left no room for opposition. With a wave of his hand he motioned for everyone to retake their seats and they did so quickly. "Now Harry, I don't think I need to impress upon you the seriousness of the actions you are proposing."

"Potter, you would never be able to convince the Dark Lord that you were loyal to him. He would kill you the instant he saw you." Snape said curtly, as blunt and direct as ever.

"This is true, but he won't know its me. And I never said that I was going to pretend to be loyal to him. I said that he would need to see me as an equal, not a Death Eater. I will be an ally, and though you will probably not be in Voldemort's presence, the Raiders will be my fighting force."

"But, how do you plan to convince him that you are someone else?" Tonks asked worriedly.

"That is precisely why all of you are here. I'm sure many of you realize that I would not choose to have some of you present." He said while looking at his parents. "But the fact remains that the people at this table are the only ones that know about or have seen our battlerobes without the concealing charms on them or incases like Mr. Stevens and Madam Bones, I will also need a good deal of assistance form some of you as well. A number of other goblins have seen them as well but I am sure Griphook here can convince them to keep the information to themselves." Harry said while motioning to the goblin at the other end of the table.

"I can indeed Lord Potter." He said with a sharp toothed grin while Harry cringed slightly at the title.

"Please don't call me that."

"Would Lord Black be more to your liking?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How about just Harry? Now, here is my plan, feel free to jump in at anytime if you feel I have overlooked something." For the next couple of hours Harry went into detail on how he planned to gain Voldemort's confidence and fielded numerous questions and number of weak points were pointed out as everyone gave their opinions. At the end of the day they had ironed out most of the details. Everyone wanted to tell Harry not to attempt this considering the initial meeting with Voldemort he will be alone but they couldn't find a legitimate argument against it. It was a very good plan so most people just kept their mouths shut and worried in silence.

MMM

For the next week and a half it was almost a constant schedule of training and working out. Harry would tell Voldemort that the Raiders are the strongest fighting force around so that is exactly what they would become. Harry's birthday passed almost without notice. Tonks, Bill and a few others bought him something but for the most part everyone's minds were on their training and the meeting that was sure to take place in a matter of days. Everyday Harry dueled a choreographed fight with Bill and everyday it was the same. By the time the week was out they both knew it move for move and curse for curse. Tonks did the same only her opponents were Dumbledore, Remus and Moody, a fight with three opponents but each one had to get every move memorized. Tonks was both irritated and immensely relieved by the workload since she didn't have time to talk with Harry about their 'situation' but she found it much easier to control her embarrassment around Harry with so much to do.

After the meeting in the Chamber of Secrets Jacob began to write periodically to Harry and would send the letter off with Fawkes when Dumbledore would send him to Potter Manor each night. Harry was very surprised when the first letter came but also happy that his brother wanted to get to know him. The letters they passed were most inconsequential information but it was a start.

Harry tried numerous times to activate the parchment he had received after Sirius' Will was read but each time he touched his wand to the page the words just wouldn't come out. He had a combined seven hours to 'talk' to him so he didn't want to waste it but neither did he want to simply put it away and forget about it. He just couldn't think of anything to say and, if he was honest with himself, he was a little afraid that Sirius wouldn't like the person he had become. Granted the parchment isn't Sirius but it is an imprint of his mind. It has all the same emotions, memories and feelings so this was as close as he was going to get and he didn't want to muck it up. He had just put the parchment away once again when Blaise entered his room with a black envelope in her hand.

"It's ready." Was all she said before she handed it to him and walked out the door. Harry could feel the dark magic just pushing out from the paper and it made him sick, but it was necessary to convince both Malfoy and Voldemort that they were serious. Since they had no idea how to contact Voldemort directly they had to go through someone else and Malfoy was the perfect candidate. The spells that Snape had placed on the parchment would ensure that no one but Voldemort could open it and it would also show him that they were well practiced in the dark arts.

MMM

Voldemort was sitting on his large black thrown underneath his father's house in Little Hangleton when Lucius Malfoy crawled on his hands and knees into the room to prostrate himself before his master. After the Ministry began arresting many of his Death Eaters the Dark Lord was in an almost constantly foul mood and took a great deal of pleasure in torturing any that came before him. As a result the Death Eaters began cowering in fear even if they saw him moving down a corridor in the opposite direction. This only served to infuriate him more. He had no use for weakness but this was all he had at the moment.

"Why have you contacted me Lucius? You are supposed to be working to free my servants, have you failed already?" He hissed in anger. Lucius began shaking uncontrollably but kept his face to the floor as he held up the envelope with both hands.

"This wa, wa, was delivered to mmmmy home this morning Mmy Lord. With instructions thhhat it be read only by you." The Dark Lord looked on in disgust as his servant stuttered like a fool but the moment he saw the envelope in his hands his curiosity was peaked. He could feel the dark magic coming off it in waves and he wondered who would have such intimate knowledge of such spells. Of his Death Eaters only Bellatrix Lestrange and the traitor Snape had both the knowledge and power to cast such spells. With a wave of his wand the black parchment was ripped from Malfoy's grasp and hovered in the air for a moment before it opened up. But instead of a letter a long series of hisses came out. Voldemort sat shocked for a moment before he was hanging on every 'word'.

Lord Voldemort, my Master desires a meeting with you to discuss a possible compromise between you. You share a great many qualities that my Master holds in high regard. It has been many generations since he has led us into combat himself because he has found no cause that is worthy of his attention. However, he feels that now may be the time to lead us once more. If you are interested in what he has to offer then he will await your arrival at the ruins of Stonehenge at midnight this very day. You may bring two of your most loyal followers and two only. Any attempt at deception will result in 'unfortunate' consequences and your immediate death. These are my Master's terms and I advise you to honor them.

Voldemort sat there in absolute shock for several minutes. The first thing that struck him was that the message was a recording in Parseltongue and the only other with that ability that he knew of was Potter but that was clearly a female speaking. A female with a very aristocratic dialect. Then, after he got passed the thought of another parselmouth he began to thing about the message itself. Naturally he was infuriated by the condescending tone and the demands that were made of him. What type of man would dare to make threats against him. And Lucius paid dearly for that anger. His first impulse was to find the one responsible for this message and force a slow and painful death upon them. After working out his anger on Malfoy he began thinking about it in an almost rational way. Due to the incompetence of his followers he was severely lacking support and he could use any help he could get. But he was also needed information. He knew nothing of this woman's master or the power he controls. He may need support but he certainly didn't need to let a man that could try to overthrow him gain the upper hand in any negotiations that may come up. HE had to be the stronger, HE had to be the one in control.

A quick wave of his wand told him that it was already half an hour to midnight. After thinking quickly he decided that he would meet this mystery man and see what he has to say before he kills him. He couldn't, after all, allow someone to talk to him like that and live, it sets a bad example. With a wave of his wand he sent a summons to Bellatrix's dark mark and waited for her to arrive. He would certainly take her as she was his strongest. With a wave of his wand and a lengthy incantation all the tremors in Lucius' body stopped as the pain fled. It was only temporary and would come back ten fold but for the moment he needed his two most loyal looking strong and ready. Whoever this upstart was, he was not going to make a fool out of him because of Malfoy's weakness for pain.

After Bellatrix arrived the Dark Lord made a portkey out of the discarded envelope and without giving either of his followers any information the three vanished from his 'thrown room' with a pop.

TBC

Alright this chapter was a lot of fun to right and I'm on a roll right now so the next chapter could be up tomorrow or the day after. Once again if you have any questions don't hesitate to send an e-mail.