Disclaimer: All belong to J.K. Rowling

The Team

Somewhere at an unknown location, a secret meeting was being held. The place of the meeting was a room with no windows that was located down in the dungeon of a ruin mansion. A very dim light from the candles was flicking as if it would go off at any moment. In the middle of the room, there was a table with five chairs on each side. One man with a hood, who sat on the right side of the table, was writing something in his journal. The second man, who had his long blonde hair tied neatly behind his head, was pacing impatiently. The third man with dark skin was reading the Daily Prophet.

"This was not supported to happen," the pacing one said angrily. His face frowned to a tired and exhausted expression.

"Who could have known he was there?" The one with the hood exclaimed while continuing his journal.

"I warned you two about the incident in the forest, but you guys did not listen to me," the last one huffed. He folded the newspaper and put it down on the table. Tonight's meeting seemed to go unwell.

"She is wounded now," the one with hood tried to ease the tension was building up. "It should be easier to capture her."

"Are you too optimistic?" the pacing one sneered. "As long as Severus is there, we have no chance in winning."

"With Kingsley's Aurors and your Death Eaters, together we can make this happen," the one with the hook smirked, knowing well on how to make this team worked to its highest advantage. "Capture him first and then the girl, it's a win-win game for us."

This was a meeting between a minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt; a Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy; and a vampire, Novas Le Mort. They were people with different ambitiousness, but held one same goal, captured Severus Snape and Lalla Bloodworth.

Severus was a high value criminal that could boost Kingsley's trust in the government and Lucius could use him to regain his power in the society and in the Death Eater's circle. Lalla, on the other hand, was more favorable toward Lucius and Novas. They knew about her truth identity and the book that Voldemort had sought before.

"When Constable attacked them, where did they go after that?" Lucius asked.

"My guess, she is at her safe house," Novas responded.

"And?" Lucius pushed.

"Sorry, but she never shares that location with anyone," Novas shook his head and his voice was a bit shaking.

"My Aurors can track down the location if they disparted out of there," Kingsley added.

"I'm afraid that your Aurors will not be of much help this time," Novas dismissed the idea. "The location of her safe house is unplottable. Also, it has a very strong protection enchantment around the house. Even, if we are able to track down her house, we have no way to enter it. We can only wait until she leaves the house."

"Constable slipped the girl pretty bad," Lucius sighed, remembering about the unfortunate news that his followers brought back. "I hope with Severus's help, she will recover soon."

"You sound like you are worried about her," Kingsley picked up on Lucius's tone of voice.

Lucius had stopped his pacing for sometime, standing steadily with his gaze held at Kingsley. He smirked and pick up his coat and cane, heading toward the door. Then he stopped and turned around, looking at the other two, "And would it be a problem if I care about her?"

When Lucius saw the surprise face from Kingsley and Novas, he gave a wry smile and turned on his heels, walking out of the room. The passage was long, narrow, and dark. He did not hurry. He strolled slowly as he thought about what he just said. Was he truly worried about her? Half of it was true, he did care about the girl but he knew clearly of where his true motive laid. She was a Lefevre, after all. Only fools would let her slipped through their fingers.

Lucius took out a pocket watch from his vest. His thumb rubbed on the surface of the watch's cover. The pattern was the signature of the Lefevre's family. His eyes gazed into the distance, not sure of how his feeling was playing. He missed a certain person, his bodyguard.

The passage led Lucius out to the back of a ruin mansion. He immediately apparated out of there. A minute later, he landed at the front gate of his manor. He stared at it for a moment then shook his head, he disapparated. The place held too many sad memories.

Meanwhile, Novas and Kingsley still stayed behind.

"Why did you help him?" Kingsley broke the silence. "Vampires are never fond with Wizarding's politics or whatever happens to us, why now?"

Novas moved his eyes away from the journal and looked up. A part of his face showed under the dim lights of the room, revealing a square face and one of his eyes was silver, he said, "I definitely do not care about your politics. I join this ride purely because of Lalla Bloodworth and Lucius shares the same passion as me."

"Lalla Bloodworth is just a kid," Kingsley wanted to know more of the girl. They always mentioned her name as some sort of important person, but never told him the truth regarding their motive. "She has no value in your game."

"Then, you do not need to know further, my friend," Novas stood up and left the room, leaving an awkward silence behind. He and Lucius agreed that they would not share about Lalla's true identity to Kingsley. They knew the man had his own agenda, and it was not a very bright one if he knew about the girl.

Novas stepped out to the forest and saw the night was slowly coming. The sun was no longer visible. He looked up to the sky and inhaled a bit of the nature's scent. His head hurt as he tried to clear the image of Lalla's slipped body. Lucius's men were the worst in capturing the girl. They did not support to harm her, just needed to bring her back to the mansion. I hope that Severus guy take care her well. He sighed and apparated away, knowing his plan still had a long way to go.

[Flashback]

"Novas, I will attend Hogwarts next month" a eleven years old girl with a pony tail jumped around Novas, who was twenty-eight at the time.

"Why don't you homeschool like others?" He rose a brow at the energetic girl.

"That's boring," she run around him. "I want to meet new people."

"But I will be your private teacher," he picked her up and spun.

"I don't want you to be my private teacher," she laughed happily.

"And what do you want me to be, Your Highness?" he asked curiously.

"My husband."

[End of flashback]

Author note: Sorry for the delay of posting the new chapter. I had a writer's block in this chapter and could not process it smoothly. It's a bit short but I promise the next chapter will make up for this. So let have a glimpse of the groups that chased after Severus and Ethelinda. Enjoy the new chapter then ^-^ And don't forget to review \(^o^)/

Specially thanks to my beta, Hero of Olympus in Disguise ^x^