Chapter 2

Watching a methodical house in Surrey on a Saturday night was not something Lucius Malfoy wanted to do. Especially since it was a Muggle one too. But being in the Inner Circle, you were subjected to doing peculiar assignments. This one was not so peculiar as it required stealth and patience. Two traits many people in the death eater ranks sorely lacked.

Four masked men; Malfoy, Avery, Nott and Rockwood had been watching the plebeian house for several hours now, ever since they had managed to confund Nymphadora Tonks, a disgrace to the Black name, who was also a member of Dumbledore's order.

It was tedious work, upstanding men like themselves should not have to undertake. Hiding in bushes watching the arid muggle house and neighborhood. You could practically smell the filth, it clung to everything. If it were not such a job of vital importance, Mr. Malfoy would probably be inclined to skive off as if it were 3rd year Transfiguration. But no this irksome household was called home to none other than Mr. Harry Potter, or so Lucius thought.

The wards surrounding the bromidic home were what kept the four masked men from storming the household and appariting away with Potter. Any persons wishing to cause malicious intent to the boy and entered the wards would find themselves surrounded by Dumbledore and his useless cronies and possibly ministry Aurors. Well, it was not the assembly outside that wanted to cause Harry ill intent, but their master Voldemort, the Dark Lord.

And so they were stationed outside surrounding the humdrum home either waiting for the wards to fall or Potter to miraculously waltz on outside, so they could grab him and activate a Portkey and whisk him away to Malfoy Manor, where there lord was awaiting there arrival.

The wards prevented anyone from the magical community from actually seeing or hearing anything that was happening on inside the house, so it was fairly obvious that something was hidden there, it was just problematic trying to gain access into the wards and so one the house. So they had to undergo a waiting game. Till either Potter no longer called this house home or he again waltzed on outside.

So they waited…and waited….and waited till finally something actually happened.

"I'll teach you, you ungrateful freak to waste food like that again!" the muggle man hollered, snapping Lucius and all the other men out of their daze. All of the men in their respective hiding spots turned to look at the house. The lights were on and somebody was in the kitchen and upstairs.

Lucius stared in disbelief. The wards…no they couldn't…not after all this time. They couldn't have fallen, not now? But, yes to Lucius' appeasement, they certainly had. The blond smirked behind he silver mask and gave out a small single through the mark to signal entry.

However, Lucius happened to be close enough to he stumbling down the stairs and smack and someone smack quite hard into a wall and a subtle groan. Rockwood watched as the female muggle ran out of the kitchen screaming for the fat man to stop. Lucius told them to wait, through the signal of course, just before he heard the male screak like a banshee. Malfoy's forehead was creased, why would the muggle howl in such acute agony. Maybe he had fallen down the stairs? That seemed like a likely explanation.

"Bang…Bang…Bang," sounded on the door, as if somebody was trying to smash there way out. This served to confuse the death eaters more.

They waited around a few more minutes and all they could here were harsh threats from the fat muggle that he was going to get the freak and as Rockwood watched the fat muggle stumbled out of the kitchen toward to the front of his pitiful residence and big, quite skinny black panther jumped through the window.

With this surprising affair Lucius, who had been closest to the lounge had barely anytime to shield himself from the debris. He hissed in pain as a stray piece of glass sliced his left side, slipping around his Protego charm. Trying to steam the bleeding Malfoy didn't notice the panther animagus stumble to the ground and stagger away, until Avery whispered in his ear.

"It was Potter, he's an animagus!" he whispered harshly.

"Wait wha-" Avery didn't give anytime to express his disbelief because Avery as well as Nott and Rockwood were already in pursuit of the injured feline. He did however have the gratifying experience of hearing the derogatory terms the filthy muggle was shouting out through the now, broken window.

Lucius had half a mind to curse the brute himself, his wand was already out of its holster, when he remembered the imperative information Avery had given him, with a signature Malfoy sneer he was off, not even bother with a Disillusionment charm, he scampered off in the direction of his fellow death eaters.

He followed the group into a small wood just on the outskirts on suburbia. When he entered the small forest the rest of his convey were circled around a fallen figure, wands raised. He approached warily raising his wand to mimic that of his comrades.

What he saw seemed to answer an unspoken question in his mind. Was this decrepit creature actually Potter?

The four men watched the panther's chest raise and fall with extremely labored breaths. The animals breaths were raspy and rattily, getting worse, even as they were standing there.

Wasting no time Lucius lowered his wand and gestured to the animal. "Pick it up, we'll take it to the Dark Lord," and with that the remaining three men lowered their wands and put them back into their holsters and approached the indigent creature.

It did not stir as the three men raised it off the ground. Within moments the Portkey was activated and with a whirl of wind and a pop, they landed n the formal Lounge of Malfoy Manner, where they Dark Lord was sitting on the sovereignty haughtily.

"What do you bring dear Lucius?"