Bad Romance,
Chapter 47, The Graeae
Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan headed to the Ministry first thing Monday morning. Normally they would've at least checked in at Azkaban, but there were no reports of trouble and everyone wanted the cold fish, otherwise known as Lucy Malfoy, out of their manor and back in his. They also planned to speak with the Aurors about having Rodolphus's dad's and Bellatrix's parents homes warded as well just in case Delphini decided to get at them through those they loved. For all they knew, Voldemort was responsible for the death of Rod's Mum and they weren't interested in a repeat.
They apparated directly into the Ministry. After receiving clearance from the two goblins guarding the inner door, they went directly to Auror Headquarters.
"Ah, it's my little dark triad," Grindelwald called, waving a pastry filled hand at them from where he sat at a corner table with a cup of fragrant coffee in front of him beside a stack of reports.
Bellatrix couldn't help giving a pleased smile at that. She liked the sound of dark triad. It fit them perfectly.
"As it happens, there is a gift for each of you," Grindelwald continued before taking a bite of the pastry he held.
"Ooh, it feels like Christmas," Rabastan enthused as a goblin approached with a shiny gold colored name badge for each of them.
"It's clearance for all departments here so that you can apparate into anywhere in the Ministry directly," Gellert explained.
"To activate it, you merely need to prick your finger and drip a drop of blood onto the back of the badge. This ensures it always recognizes you and no one else can wear it with the same results. If someone steals your badge, for example, and attempts to apparate in here wearing it, it won't work and shall instead set off many nasty alarms!"
The German gave a pleased smile.
"Blood magic," Rabastan said approvingly. "Dark stuff. I love it!"
Gellert grinned. "It's the only way to go when it comes to proper security."
"Did you and your man make them," Bellatrix wondered. Enchantments were the shared specialty of both, which was why they'd opened their shop together.
Gellert gave her a pleased smile. "Indeed. That is how we spent our entire weekend, as a matter-of-fact. There was little rest and no fun for us. Instead we slaved away for the greater good of Ministry security."
"Just in time to provide something for you all to prick your fingers with, I finally have a replacement dagger for you, Mrs. Lestrange," Blaise Zabini said, coming up behind Bellatrix to present an ornate dagger to her, hilt first.
"I do apologize for not getting this to you sooner," he said. "What with something unpleasant happening every day to demand our attention, there was less time to attend to anything else than I expected."
Bellatrix nodded, giving a dismissive shrug. "Indeed it has been chaotic in the least fun of ways, and I have it now." Taking the dagger she lifted it to her eyes to examine it. It sported an intricate Celtic Triquetra on the silver hilt with a large sparkling oval emerald in the center.
"This is nice," she murmured. "Thank you."
It had a definite Slytherin touch with the combination of the silver dagger and the green emerald. The Triquetra, if intended to be Irish along with the emerald, represented the Lestranges Three beautifully.
"We picked it up on a supply hunting trip last year and had yet to decide what to enchant it to do, but it seemed perfect for you," Blaise said.
Bellatrix put her new dagger to work right away, activating the blood magic spell on her security badge, before passing it to Rodolphus, who did the same then passed it to Rabastan. While that was being attended to, Rodolphus explained their request for security on the Malfoy's home as well as the homes of their parents.
"We understand that you lot are very busy, but if we don't get Lucy Malfoy out of our manor soon, we're likely to slip up and kill him," Rabastan explained in all seriousness.
As he spoke, he passed Bella back her new dagger.
Giving the hilt of her new favorite weapon a fond squeeze, Bellatrix slipped it into the wide black leather belt at her waist. Though she knew her wand held the true power, having a blade on her again did give her a pleasant surge of the warm fuzzies.
"We don't really have the resources, but enough high risk people are going to want this done for their families, so I guess we're going to have to make it happen anyway," Romeo Valdez said with a sigh.
The head Auror had just entered while Rodolphus was making their request.
"OOH, Pastries," Valdez added eagerly, hurrying to the table at which Grindelwald sat.
"Is there more coffee?"
"Good question," Bellatrix said.
It did smell wonderful, after all.
"There is," Gellert replied.
"Greg brought the pastries."
"Bless him," Romeo said, snatching one from a tray across from Grindelwald and stuffing half of it into his mouth.
"My wife has many talents, but bless her, cooking is not among them. Thankfully for all of us, she doesn't try," he said, after chewing his huge bite of pastry.
Bellatrix approached the table and poured three cups of coffee, taking one for herself and passing the other two to Rodolphus and Rabastan. The pastries were tempting, but they'd just had breakfast, so she left them alone.
"Gellert, I suppose we should work out a schedule for getting homes warded," Romeo said. "I am thinking sooner rather than later before more shit hits the fan and our resources are too low to be able to spare anyone."
Gellert nodded.
"Write Flitwick and ask him to help after school. His additions will speed the process significantly."
Romeo nodded. "I'm on it...as soon as I've eaten the rest of this," he waved the pastry in his hand expressively before taking another bite.
"Well the good news is that Kereston got the basilisk fangs ordered," Blaise said, moving around the table to slide his elegant lanky frame into the chair next to Grindelwald's.
"The bad news is she cleaned out the three suppliers who carry basilisk fangs and there still isn't enough for everyone to have one."
"Not surprising," Romeo sighed. "Lately that's been the way with everything. Two steps forward and one back just to make it a bitch."
Gellert flashed an appreciative grin.
"Well in all fairness, no one usually needs that many god damn basilisk fangs," Rabastan said with a chuckle.
"Thanks to Delphini, it's all about the unusual of late," Romeo said dryly. "From excessive home warding to basilisk fangs, she's making us scramble and I hate it."
"So how are you deciding who gets the fangs with supplies being limited," Bellatrix asked.
"And why isn't someone giving the Basilisks horny potion so they will shag more," Rabastan demanded. "The more babies there are, the more fangs there will be."
Romeo sputtered a laugh into his coffee, shaking his head at Rabastan.
"For now we will be providing those with basilisk fang weapons who are most likely to be attacked by Delphini," Gellert replied to Bellatrix's question. "Fangs will also go to those who guard high security places that she is most likely to attack. These fangs will remain property of those places rather than to the particular guards, so when the shifts change they will just give the weapon to the next guard.
"Sounds good," Romeo nodded. "When should the fangs be in?"
Blaise shrugged. "Well they're coming from three different places, so not at the same time. As they're arriving by magical post that shouldn't matter too much. We should have them all in two days, but some will arrive sooner, perhaps even this afternoon."
"Good," Romeo said. "We can start distributing them this after noon. I will have one, Gellert and Blaise will have one to share as they're always together, the Minister herself will have one, we will give them out to those who guard the Ministry, Hogwarts, and Gringotts. Of course the three of you will be given a fang," he added to the Lestranges. "As you're usually together, you can also share it between the three of you."
Rabastan grinned. "Like the Graeae! You know the three Greek sisters who shared the eye.
"They also shared a tooth, which is the point here," Rodolphus told his little brother.
"Exactly," Gellert said.
"We won't be giving one to the Malfoys so tell Lucius not to come up here asking," Blaise said. "We will, however, give an alarm device to anyone who is concerned for their safety when it comes to Delphini. They can use it to notify the Ministry if she approaches them. Those Gellert and I can craft relatively quickly so they can go to anyone who wants one."
"That sounds reasonable," Bellatrix said.
She exchanged a look with Rod as she spoke, because of course that didn't mean Lucy Malfoy wouldn't bitch nonetheless. He was accustomed to having anything he wanted being swiftly handed over, but this new Ministry was different, and it did not give a fuck about him.