Chapter Eight- Party Part One
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Letters; carefully concealed letters, written in code, embossed with the Malfoy seal and sent out to every person who had sworn their allegiance to Draco Malfoy in a ceremony that required blood and life and was so unbreakable that to defy Draco Malfoy meant painful death. On the outside the letter looked like an invitation to the prestigious Malfoy Christmas Ball. Only those who knew the code would understand the true meaning behind the letter.
A meeting was to be held, plans were to be discussed, and loyalty was to be renewed; and at the head of this meeting stood Draco Malfoy, Ginevra Weasley, Blaise Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson.
Draco Malfoy watched as the owls swooped out of his office, all two hundred and forty seven, each with a beautiful invitation tied around one claw, and smiled coldly. His plans were finally beginning to fall into place. He had the beautiful Ginevra at his side, an entire legion of followers, and a perfect set of plans for every eventuality. All Draco needed to do was wait patiently for Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to defeat Voldemort. Then…then the world would bow at the feet of Draco Malfoy and his consort Ginevra Weasley.
III
Ginny smiled happily as she walked into the training room and saw Snape and the twins working with all the children. Snape was staying for the weekend, until Dumbledore called him back, and was giving final potion tutorials to the oldest of the children. Fred was in another corner teaching the six year old girl, the seven year old boy and the three ten year olds basic defensive and offensive magic. George was teaching all the other children advanced charms and their blocks. In the center of the room stood Draco with his wand out. Aaron stood across from him. Neither was speaking and Ginny saw that Draco was teaching the small boy how to shoot spells silently. Aaron was a magical prodigy, almost a rival to Draco's own powers.
"Lunch time!" Ginny called into the mêlée. Suddenly what had once been a group of studious individuals became a mob of hungry children. They ran screaming excitedly past Ginny and down the hall. Fred, George and Snape followed at a slightly more sedate pace.
Draco and Aaron were left staring at each other with wands drawn and a ready spell in the minds. Ginny sighed. At this rate the two boys would never get downstairs to lunch.
Ginny pointed her finger at the boys and focused her magic into the small digit. "Expelliarmus." She whispered quietly. Two wands went flying into the air and two shocked faces turned to look at her.
Ginny smiled contentedly at them. "Lunch time." She chirped.
Draco had been taking his free time to train her as well as Aaron. In the week she had been at Malfoy Manor, Ginny had surpassed seventh year curriculum and was well into what Draco called mystical magic. This included wandless magic and spells that were so powerful that very few individuals could harness, or even dream about controlling, such power. Ginny knew that in a few more weeks of hard training she would reach the power level that Draco resided on. They would be the two most powerful individuals in the world.
Ginny smiled as she followed Draco out of the room and down the hall. Voldemort thought Draco was on his side and Dumbledore thought Ginny was on his side. Neither of the warring powers knew that a third side was growing. Draco and Ginny and all of their followers were perfectly poised to take control of the world and teach all of the ignorant masses of Slytherin's truth and Gryffindor's lie.
III
Nymphadora Tonks looked up from the gold embossed invitation in her hands and watched the proud eagle owl soar high into the clouds from the window in number twelve Grimmauled Place and shook her head in confusion. Tonks knew what she had learned at her mother's knee. Even though Andromeda had abandoned many of the Black family precepts when she married a Muggle born, the pure blooded woman had made sure that the truth had been made blatantly apparent to her young daughter Nymphadora.
Tonks slipped the invitation into a safe box that not even Remus knew about before heading downstairs to speak with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
She found the trio in the living room playing a quick game of chess. Ron was beating Harry, as usual, and Hermione was reading. Tonks smiled. Their inattention meant that her questions would not register as more than idle curiosity. She did not want the trio to know that she was checking their amount of knowledge for when she made a report to her true masters.
"So boys," she began with a small smile. "Did your sister ever mention where she was going for the holidays?"
Harry shrugged and Ron took an extra second to take Harry's pawn before answering. "She went to a friends house. I think she told Mum exactly where."
Tonks watched Harry move his bishop only to see Ron take the piece with his rook seconds later. She knew that the conversation was completely out of their minds. As she turned to leave Tonks caught Hermione looking at her over the top of a huge book.
"Why do you ask?" Hermione whispered, conscience of the fact that the boys would overreact if she made a big deal out of such a small question.
"Oh…" Tonks shrugged and waved her hand dismissively while she did some quick thinking. "Ginny and I usually have girl talk over break, you know, about boys and such, and I was missing our usual get-togethers. I'll just send her a letter; don't worry about it." Hermione nodded and Tonks walked breezily out of the room changing her hair to bright blue as she went.
Her masters would be pleased. No one in the Order Headquarters was aware that in a few short days Ginny Weasley would be hosting her coronation ball in Malfoy Manor as she was instated as future queen and current co-ruler of the empire that Draco Malfoy was creating.
Tonks sent a quick acceptance letter back with a by-note mentioning the homes and names of three new seven year olds who had been marked by the Ministry to attend Hogwarts in four years and two eight year olds who were to attend Beauxbatons when they reached the age of eleven. Hopefully Draco would have brought all five children into his home by the time of the party.
For now, Tonks had to go dress shopping.
III
Albus Dumbledore stood next to the charred wreckage that had once been a proud Muggle home. The Muggle firemen and policemen were just leaving the scene and Ministry and Order members were beginning to arrive. The owners of the home were insignificant when it came to recognition by the Wizarding World but their young daughter had been marked as an entrée into Hogwarts. When the Ministry had gauged her powers it had been clear that the girl would have been a strong asset to the school and eventually, hopefully, to the Order or the Ministry. The parents had been found unconscious and obliviated while the girl and her three-year-old brother (who was being watched for future signs of magical power) were both missing.
Dumbledore had a very strong guess as to what had happened. He had found a couple of signs that lead him to the belief that Death Eaters had been present at the scene and from that conclusion it was clear that the poor children had been kidnapped by Voldemort and his minions.
The old headmaster stifled a shudder when he thought of the horrors the innocent children must be going through and continued to survey the disaster. This was the second child taken in the same week.
The first missing child to ever disappear had been in a children's homeless shelter. He had been an accidental child born to pureblooded parents who had abandoned the newborn boy at a Muggle orphanage in order to avoid the shame a bastard child would create in their social circle. When the orphanage had been condemned the boy had gone to the streets where his harsh life had taught him how to harness his powers in order to survive. He disappeared in the middle of the night and, while the shelter said that this happened frequently with many children, Dumbledore knew that the boy had been kidnapped.
The only thing Dumbledore did not know was why the Death Eaters were taking the children. At first he thought Voldemort was going to use the children as hostages and bargaining tools but there were never any ransom notes. The only other reason the headmaster could think of was that the children were being used as moving targets for battle training, but still, their bodies were never found. It was perplexing but the kidnappings did serve to fuel the Ministry's' and the Orders' desire to destroy Voldemort and all of the Death Eaters.
Albus Dumbledore hoped that the mystery would be solved when the raided the Malfoy Mansion during the Malfoy's Christmas Ball.
III
Draco Malfoy looked out through the eye wholes in his mask to survey the glittery crowd as a smirk crossed his face. There were so many people in attendance. Many of them had come to renew their oaths of service to Draco and his cause but an equal amount had come to join the cause. The power base was growing each year and the army was nearly five hundred strong.
As he watched Blaise spin Ginevera around on the dance floor a rare smile lit the blonde's face.
Maybe for tonight he could relax a little and allow himself to have a little bit of fun. It was Christmas after all; and Draco Malfoy was quite sure that his plans were foolproof. He glided gracefully down the staircase to steal his fiancé away from Zabini and gave the pretty redhead his full attention.