A/N: This chapter introduces a lot of changes, so be ready! Things will start to develop a little more rapidly after this.

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto

Chapter 8: To Catch a Cat

The longer Harry, Ron and Hermione pursued Mrs. Norris, the more they were convinced she was a witch in disguise. They would catch a glimpse of her and follow her around a corner, only to find that she had disappeared. Once Harry could have sworn he saw a smug grin tugging at the corners of Mrs. Norris' mouth, right before she pulled another one of her disappearing acts.

"The ruddy thing is always there when you least expect her," Ron complained bitterly, "but she's never there when you need her."

He said this as they were passing a portrait of a knight in armor, who nodded wisely and added, "That's women, mate. Hit the nail on the head, you have."

"Oh, sod off," Ron snapped, "I wasn't talking to you!"

The knight sniffed at a linen handkerchief, highly offended. "Well, I never! If I weren't stuck in this painting I'd demand satisfaction!"

Hermione sighed tiredly. "Ron, we're all tired of this, but that's no reason to take it out on innocent paintings."

Ron glowered, but apologized to the knight before moving on. "He started it," he muttered sullenly as they continued their search.

By the end of the first day, they had had no luck at all. Mrs. Norris had eluded them at every turn, and Harry was starting to think that Filch was getting suspicious. There was nothing concrete, but he scowled at them a little more deeply each time he saw them, and a guilty conscience is apt to latch on to the smallest signs that other people know of one's wrongdoing.

Harry knew all about guilty consciences, because in addition to feeling bad about stealing Mrs. Norris, he had to refuse an invitation from Nearly Headless Nick to his 500th Deathday Party. It was the next day, and since they would have to spend all of it hunting Mrs. Norris they couldn't make it. Harry had never seen a ghost sulk before, but it definitely gave him a twinge of guilt. Ron made him feel slightly better when he observed that there were many other Deathday Parties he could attend; an eternity of them, in fact.

Once Harry put Nearly Headless Nick out of his thoughts, he realized that they might need to put more thought into their plan to catch Mrs. Norris. Hermione had enchanted three sacks to smell like catnip, one of which would hopefully entice Mrs. Norris inside. However, they had no idea if a wizard's cat would even like catnip. If the trick failed, they would have to catch Mrs. Norris the old-fashioned way, and the cat was quick! But in spite of Ron's grumbling, all three Gryffindors were determined to see their task through.

After the first day, however, it was clear that they would need more than determination to catch Mrs. Norris. They would need a new plan for tomorrow. Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered in a corner of the common room, lowering their voices so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"I've got an idea," Ron began. Even though he'd been complaining almost non-stop, his voice now sounded excited. "Why don't we ask Fred and George for help?"

Harry shook his head. "I dunno if that's such a good idea. I mean, Professor Sarutobi gave us this task. Won't it look bad if we can't do it ourselves?"

"No, that's just it," Ron said, getting more excited. "It's like our detention, remember? He put the flags in the circles to start with, but they didn't have to stay in the circles. The trick was changing the game in order to open up more options – it's just like chess. What do we have? Just the three of us, and forty-eight hours… or twenty-four, now. We can't get more time, because that's one of the rules. But the Professor never said we couldn't get more people. Remember what he said about tactics before, and always trying to gain an advantage – I think he'd want us to ask for help. And who better than Fred and George? They pull pranks on Filch all the time. If anyone can catnap Mrs. Norris, it's them."

Hermione was listening to Ron with a slightly dazed expression on her face. "That's… actually quite brilliant, Ronald."

Ron blushed bright red, right to the roots of his hair. "Thanks, Herm- wait, hold on a second! You said that like you were surprised!"

Hermione tried her best to recover from her slip-up. "What? No, I didn't! That's not how I meant it, anyway."

Ron began to sulk a bit, curling into his armchair and staring into the fire. "I can be brilliant," he muttered to nobody in particular.

"You just were," Harry said, trying to cajole Ron back into a good humor. "Look, let's go ask Fred and George for help."

"Now that is something I never thought to hear," Fred's carefree voice cut across their whispered conversation. "The vanquisher of the Dark Lord, looking for help from little old us? Whatever could he mean by it, George?"

"I'm sure I don't know," his twin replied. "But whatever it is, I hope he can pay for it. Favors don't come free, you know."

Ron looked up from his armchair and scowled at his brothers. They had drifted over from the entrance, and stood next to each other with their arms crossed, wicked glints in their eyes. "Don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?" he demanded.

"Don't you know it's impossible to resist?" Fred said with a laugh.

"Besides," George added, "if you want to have a conversation without people overhearing, don't do it in a public place while skulking in a corner. Not exactly inconspicuous, if you see what I mean."

Harry winced. It was kind of obvious, now that he thought about it.

Fred spread out his arms wide, as if welcoming customers into a store. "Now then, how can we be of service?"

"It's like this," Harry said, then halted, a little embarrassed and unsure where to begin. "Suppose someone had to, uh… catch an animal. But that animal didn't want to be caught."

"It's funny," George began, tilting his head to one side, "but we may actually be able to help you. Not without more information, though. Come on, spill! What animal do you need to find?"

"Um…" Harry decided to just go for it. "Mrs. Norris," he said in a rush.

Harry didn't think he'd ever seen the twins more astonished. Their jaws dropped, and their eyebrows rose in tandem. Fred recovered first, bringing his right hand to his chest in a mocking gesture. "Be still my heart! Potter, are you trying to ask us for help with a prank?"

"Not just any prank, brother mine," George corrected. "The mother of all pranks. The only possible riskier prank would be stealing Snape's briefs and hanging them from the Astronomy Tower-"

"-which we will do before we graduate," Fred finished. "On our honor as Weasleys. But let's back up a second. Why, exactly, do you want to kidnap Mrs. Norris?"

Harry shushed him furiously, worried that someone might overhear. Ron pointed out, "I believe it's catnap, actually. If you want to be precise." Ron looked pleased as punch to have surprised his brothers, the Professors of Pranking themselves.

"It's kind of a secret," Harry said. He didn't want to spread around Professor Sarutobi's test – he didn't want the Professor to get into any trouble or anything. But the Weasley twins were having none of that. They crossed their arms, and did their best impressions of the patented Oliver Wood "I'm-disappointed-in-you" look.

"Look here, Harry," Fred said, leaning forward a little and lowering his voice. "We're prepared to go out of our way to help you on this, if only because you've come up with a prank that we've never thought of before."

George quickly added, "A fact that is as embarrassing for us as it is impressive for you."

"However," Fred continued, "we're not about to do this for nothing. If we help you it will mean revealing one of our secrets, one which we've guarded jealously for as long as we've known about it. I'd say a secret for a secret is a fair trade, though. You tell us why you want Mrs. Norris, and we'll help you catch her. We'll even take the fall for it if anything goes wrong, and Filch finds out. Deal?"

"I don't know…" Harry said, torn. But there was only one answer, and in the end he knew what it was. "All right. You're in."

George rubbed his hands together with glee. "Excellent. This is a job truly worthy of our talents."

So Harry told the twins about Sarutobi's offer, and its conditions. They were appropriately impressed, and loved the fact that a Professor had assigned them a prank for a test.

"So can you help us?" Hermione asked. "We enchanted sacks in order to catch Mrs. Norris, but we don't know if they'll work."

"Catching the cat will be up to you," Fred replied, touching the side of his nose in a knowing gesture. "All we can do is make sure that you know exactly where she is in the castle, at every moment of the day. And although we haven't hammered out the details of our partnership, I feel confident that George and I can take upon ourselves the responsibility of ensuring that Filch doesn't bother you while you try to nab her. Actually getting the cat in the bag will be your job. Agreed?"

"Agreed." The five Gryffindors put their hands together, and made a solemn vow that dissolved into laughter.

Harry was still curious about something. "How can you know where Mrs. Norris is all the time? We followed her for a day, and barely got more than a glimpse of her tail around a corner."

"Patience, Harry," Fred said mysteriously. "Good things come to those who wait. Also, George and I know better than to discuss our secrets in an unsecured location." He looked around the common room with exaggerated suspicion, then turned back to the second-years. "Meet us in the second-floor boy's bathroom after breakfast tomorrow, and all your questions will be answered."

Without another word, the brothers left the common room and walked up the winding dormitory staircase, winking outrageously at each other the whole way.

"Damn it," Ron said, watching them go. "Once, just once, I'd like them to give a straight answer to a question."

"Oh, that's all right," Hermione answered, turning in her armchair so that her face would be closer to the fire. "Like they said, we'll just have to be patient. Whatever they're hiding up their sleeves, we'll find out tomorrow."

"I hope they know what they're doing," Harry said worriedly. "We're running out of time."

Ron laughed quietly. "Have a little faith, Harry. Did you see their faces when you told them what we were planning? They're determined not to get shown up as the best pranksters at this school. I guarantee it, they're gonna give this everything they've got. Mrs. Norris doesn't stand a chance."

oOoOo

The next morning, Harry, Ron and Hermione met up with the Weasley twins after breakfast. The bathroom they had chosen as their clandestine location had an Out of Order sign on it, but Harry thought he recognized Fred's loopy handwriting from a note he'd passed at dinner one day. Ron knocked very quietly on the door.

"Who goes there?" George's voice came out quietly from behind the door.

"It's us, of course," Ron whispered. "Who else would try to get into a closed bathroom?"

The door swung inward, moving by itself. The Weasley twins wore hooded cloaks, with the hoods pulled low to cover their faces. It was clear that they were getting a huge kick out of the drama.

"George is lookout," Fred said, and his twin confirmed by moving to the door, keeping one ear pressed to the wood. "He'll tell us if anyone's coming. Gather round, you lot. I've got something amazing to share with you."

They did as he asked, all three equally curious about the Weasley twins' secret. "Here it is," Fred said, pulling a roll of parchment from underneath his cloak. He unrolled it with a theatrical snap, and held it out for them to see. Harry peered at it, wondering if he was missing something. The parchment was blank.

"What are you trying to pull?" Ron asked belligerently. "If this is some kind of joke-"

Fred tsked lightly. "Patience, dear brother. What good is a map if just anyone can read it? Pay attention." He brought out his wand, and tapped the piece of parchment lightly. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

To Harry's amazement, black ink began to appear on the surface of the parchment, spreading rapidly and forming designs that soon turned into what looked like a miniature model of Hogwarts. Harry recognized it from the floor plan alone, but soon words surfaced as well, labeling the classrooms, dormitories, libraries, and even the dungeons. Then, after everything else had appeared, small dots became visible moving throughout the hallways and in the classrooms, and next to those dots were names.

"Is that-" Hermione gasped.

Fred nodded, smiling as wide as a Cheshire cat. "That's right. Everyone in the castle, their exact location. We're here," he said, pointing his wand at the 2nd-floor bathroom. "And Mrs. Norris is…" he paused, studying the map closely with his brow furrowed in concentration. "There," he said at last, pointing to a new location. "Oh, would you look at that! She's in the library. I suppose she wants to catch up on her reading."

Ron was spluttering like a fish, completely unable to speak. For that matter, Harry was pretty amazed as well. This map was unbelievable.

George craned his head to look back at them. "Pretty amazing, isn't it? I don't know how we ever got along without it."

Hermione asked to look at the map, and studied it with an air of reverence. "It's unbelievably complex… for an enchantment to keep track of everyone in Hogwarts, it would need some really advanced magic… do you know who made it?"

"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred answered mysteriously. "The Marauders. We don't know who they were, but we salute them. They are our great mentors, and we aspire to their standards of pranking. This map is possibly our most valuable possession: the Marauders' Map."

"And we're going to lend it to you," George added from the door.

Fred nodded, and handed the map to Harry with a mocking half-bow. "That's right. With the Marauders on your side, you'll have all the chances you need to catch Mrs. Norris."

Harry held the map carefully, reverently. He found the little dot that represented Mrs. Norris, and followed it with his eyes.

"Here's our proposition," Fred said, taking the map back from Harry. "We'll lend you the Marauder's Map for the day. After dinner, we'll set off a case of Dungbombs near enough for Filch to get caught in the blast. It'll be chaos – students will start milling around, so we'll be able to escape. But since he's going to smell like Dungbomb, the one place Mrs. Norris won't be is near Filch. You three wait with the map, and then do your thing."

They were all impressed with the strategy – it was simple and elegant, and it just might work. "Won't Filch be extremely angry?" Hermione asked, a little worried.

"Nah, we'll just say it was an accident if he catches us," Fred said with a shrug. "We'll be extra nice to him after this. No more pranks for… oh, for at least a week."

"Then it's a plan," Harry said with growing confidence. "When should we take the map?"

"Now," Fred answered. He tapped the map with his wand and whispered, "Mischief managed." The ink vanished, and soon the Marauders' Map was just a crinkly yellowing piece of parchment once more. Fred rolled it up and handed it to Harry, who tucked it into his robes.

"After dinner, then?" Harry asked. Fred nodded. "Thanks, you two. We owe you one."

"We're going to hold you to that," George called out in a sing-song voice. "Don't you worry. We're going to think long and hard about what you three can do for us. I think we have a few products that need guinea pigs for testing, right Fred?"

An expression of horror spread across Ron's face. No doubt he was remembering traumatic moments from the Weasley household. Harry had a notion that he had no idea what he was letting himself in for.

oOoOo

The twins' planned worked perfectly. Or at least, it seemed to work based on what the Marauders' Map showed. After dinner, as they had promised, the Weasley twins set off with a case of Dungbombs under each arm, looking like they were going off to war. Harry, Ron and Hermione went to a secluded corner in the library and watched everything unfold on the map.

The dots that represented the Weasley twins went closer and closer to Filch, who was in the Great Hall. There was nothing on the map that showed when the Dungbombs went off, but soon almost every person on the first floor was congregating at the top of the main staircase. Fred and George had taken off like a shot, and Filch was right behind.

"They've done it," Harry said. "Where's Mrs. Norris?"

Hermione, who had been peering over the map, keeping her bushy hair out of the way over one shoulder, found Mrs. Norris first. "She's near that bathroom on the third floor. The one that's out of service, and always has a pool of water near it."

"Then let's go." The three of them stood up after wiping the map clean, and left the library side-by-side. They felt as if they were embarking on a dangerous mission – even Hermione looked excited, although she still maintained that she wished Sarutobi had given them a test that was at least in line with the rules.

When they reached the third floor, they encountered Ginny almost running in the opposite direction. She looked a little lost, and almost bumped into them before recognizing them. She saw Harry and squeaked, and then continued on as if a ghost was chasing her. Harry sighed. Ginny had been acting weird around him all year, and recently it had only gotten worse. When he asked Ron if anything was the matter, Ron only shook his head and said that girls were weird. Hermione hadn't been any more helpful – she had only looked down her nose at him, and said that if he didn't know, she certainly wasn't going to tell him.

But a second later, all thoughts of Ginny's odd behavior were driven out of Harry's head by the voice that he had heard only once before: in Sarutobi's office. The voice was just as he remembered it, exactly as he heard it sometimes in nightmares. Cold, merciless… and hungry.

"Blood… crack the bones, feast on the marrow… give me blood…"

The voice seemed to be moving away from Harry, and towards the third-floor bathroom. He looked at Ron and Hermione, and was torn. He didn't want to lead them into danger, but he had to know who or what that voice belonged to!

"Did you hear that?" he asked, a little desperately. Ron and Hermione both looked at him, confused. "Be careful," he told them, "I think there's something here! Something dangerous."

He took out his wand, and started running after the voice. Ron and Hermione shouted at him to slow down, but the voice was getting away. It sounded like it intended to hurt someone, and Harry couldn't just let it get away.

Harry first noticed something odd when he saw the water trickling along the floor. He followed it to its source, which turned out to be the very bathroom that Mrs. Norris had been loitering around earlier. Sure enough, Mrs. Norris was there, tiptoeing gingerly around in order to keep as much of the water from touching her as possible. She was about twenty yards from Harry, and the door to the bathroom was directly between the two of them. On the wall opposite the bathroom, words had been scrawled in fresh paint. They read, The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware!

Harry heard the voice again, louder this time. It sounded like it was right next to him. "Feast… red, hot, delicious blood…"

Ron and Hermione caught up to Harry, falling silent when he gave them an insistent gesture.

Harry stepped forward, about to yell at Mrs. Norris in an attempt to scare her away. His instincts told him that their test wasn't as important as getting everyone very far away, very quickly. But just as he opened his mouth, he saw something that scared the sound right out of him. The door to the bathroom swung open, pushed by a green, scaly head. It swung to the right, towards Mrs. Norris, and Harry realized with horror that the head was attached to the giant body of a snake.

Harry, Ron and Hermione froze where they stood, unable to speak if their lives had depended on it. Of course, that was what saved their lives. Mrs. Norris was looking at the water, when the shadow of the giant snake fell over her. Then she seemed to transform, right before Harry's eyes. She became rigid, not like the Gryffindors who were simply trying to remain motionless, but rigid like a statue. She didn't move, not even when the snake brought its massive head down to inspect her.

Then Hermione's voice rang out, shattering the silence like a crystal chandelier crashing to the floor. "Close your eyes!"

She sounded so firm, so sure, that Harry and Ron obeyed immediately. But Harry's heart sank, because he heard the ominous rustle as the snake made an abrupt movement. Why had Hermione just alerted the snake to their presence? They could have tried to sneak away, although the chances would have been slim that they could have moved without alerting it.

"It's a basilisk," Hermione whispered to them, her voice despairing and ragged with fear. "If you look into its eyes, you die instantly."

Oh – that explained it. "Thank you, Hermione," Harry whispered fervently.

"What do we do now?" Ron's voice cracked at the end, going up in a high squeak.

"We run," Harry said, but he knew there was little hope. A snake that big would catch up with them in seconds. What a deadly snake was doing in Hogwarts he didn't know, but that question wasn't exactly relevant with death staring them in the face.

He turned, opening his eyes when his back was safely toward the basilisk. He began to run, staying a step behind Hermione and Ron. The snake hissed loudly, but to Harry's astonishment he heard it as if it were a voice speaking to him clearly. "New prey… come to me!"

There was a series of crashes, probably from the snake trying to maneuver in a hallway that was barely large enough to contain it. Harry put on a fresh burst of speed, and started shooting hot sparks from his wand out behind him, aiming for the center of the sounds. He didn't stand a chance of hurting the basilisk, but maybe he would get lucky and put out one of the creature's eyes. He only wished he knew a more potent curse, like gouts of fire or lightning.

The three Gryffindors were rounding a corner when the miraculous happened. Professor Sarutobi appeared from out of nowhere, materializing in the middle of the hallway, his white robes flapping as if caught by a non-existent wind. He moved so quickly that he became a blur, streaking past them and back towards the monster.

"Don't look it in the eyes, Professor!" Hermione screamed, turning around automatically as Sarutobi turned the corner and raced towards the snake. A great sense of safety washed over Harry – Professor Sarutobi was here now. No matter how terrible a basilisk was, Professor Sarutobi would be fine. Harry knew it with the deepest conviction.

He edged his way cautiously around the corner, peeking out with one hand shading his eyes in case he needed to quickly look away from the basilisk. He needn't have worried.

Professor Sarutobi stood directly in the center of the hallway, face-to-face with the giant basilisk. The handles of two knives stuck out of the creature's eye sockets, and a thick, dark blood oozed down the reptile's face. The basilisk screamed in agony, an inhuman sound full of pain and rage. It gathered itself, ready to charge at the puny human that had caused its injury.

The Professor brought his hands together, his legs bent in a strange posture. Then, too softly for Harry to hear distinctly, he spoke a few words that shook the universe. A rumbling began all around them, as if Hogwarts castle was a slumbering giant that was beginning to awake. Harry felt a strange sense of resistance, as if someone was stretching a rubber band to its breaking point. The more the world stretched, the more the very air seemed to thicken and resist. But then, like a rubber band breaking, the resistance disappeared in a flash of energy and motion. Harry could suddenly breathe again, and the effect of the Professor's magic became obvious.

All along the corridor, for the entire length of the basilisk, the walls and ceiling shimmered and… melted. From out of the melting stone came giant spikes, just like the ones that the Professor had created during Harry and Ron's detention. The spikes hardened and sank deeply into the basilisk, cutting through its scaly hide like a knife through tissue paper. Over and over again, the giant spikes skewered the snake, until there was barely an inch of its skin still visible. The corridor had become a slaughterhouse from nightmare, and the basilisk was unmistakably dead. It hadn't even had time for one last, blood-curdling scream, so quickly had death descended from all sides.

Harry's blood was racing in his veins, and the adrenaline coursing through his system didn't let up, unconvinced that the danger was truly over. Professor Sarutobi turned to the three Gryffindors, and his expression, which was deadly serious, softened into one of satisfaction, and perhaps even good humor.

"Well now, you three," he said with a smile. "Before we begin your training, I can see that I'm going to have to lecture you about not exceeding the parameters of your mission. I asked for a cat, not a snake."

Harry laughed weakly, but it was as much a way of keeping from breaking down into hysterics as it was genuine amusement.

"What… the bloody hell… was that?" Ron stammered, pointing a shaking finger at the basilisk's corpse.

"A basilisk," Hermione answered, her voice a mixture of fear and relief at their deliverance.

Ron looked annoyed. "I know that! What I want to know is what it's doing in the school? I could handle Fluffy - he was cute, in a slobbery kind of way. But I absolutely draw the line at snakes!"

Professor Sarutobi put a hand on Ron's shoulder, aware that he was working himself up into a state. "Those are excellent questions, Mr. Weasley. I will make sure that I bring them to the Headmaster's attention immediately. Now, I suggest that you three run along. All that noise is going to bring curious onlookers, and I doubt you wish to be bombarded with questions to which none of you have the answers. Go on to your dormitories, and get a good night's rest. That will help you recover from this shock more than anything. I'll clean things up here." He gestured casually over his shoulder at the carcass and the maze of deadly spikes obstructing the corridor.

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said gratefully, although he knew none of them would be sleeping tonight. Instead, they would be talking about what had happened. Harry had a very difficult decision to make – he had to decide whether to tell Ron and Hermione that the voice he had heard belonged to the basilisk. Somehow he didn't see that particular conversation ending well.

"Get along with you," the Professor said, making shooing motions with his hands. "I'll see you in class on Monday. Afterwards, we'll begin your training."

It took Harry a few seconds to process that, but when he did, he looked at Professor Sarutobi with surprise. "You mean-"

"Yes. I only had a second before I killed the snake, but I did see poor Mrs. Norris in an unenviable comatose state further down the hallway. Since she is in no position to run away, it would be easy for you to deliver her to me. In the interest of saving time, I'm skipping that final step, and declaring your test officially over. Best prepare yourself, youngsters: your training begins on Monday."

Harry started to share a smile with Ron and Hermione, but stopped when Professor Sarutobi let out a sinister chuckle. "I wouldn't be happy about that if I were you. Before the first day is up, you'll be begging me for the chance to face a basilisk instead of what I have cooked up for you."

Harry gulped. That didn't sound good.

oOoOo

Dear Father,

Thank you for the extra cloak – it was beginning to get quite cold down in the dungeons. Quidditch practice is going very well, and on behalf of the team, Marcus Flint would like to extend his sincere gratitude for the new brooms. He would also like me to tell you that his father remains in your debt after that spot of help you gave him with the Ministry, and if there's anything he can do for you, he'd be greatly obliged.

School is going well, although that Mudblood Granger continues to pull top marks. I'm sure that Dumbledore, being the Muggle-lover that he is, has something to do with that. However, I'm going to work even harder and regain my spot at the top of the class – that's a promise, Father, on my honor as a Malfoy.

On a different subject, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is actually quite good. He seems to have an enlightened attitude towards Dark Magic, and I'm learning a lot from him. He's far too good to be working for that idiot Dumbledore – perhaps this summer you can ask him to be my private tutor? It may be hard to believe, because apparently he comes from some small village in Japan, but it is my honest opinion that Professor Sarutobi is more talented than Rookwood. But don't take my word for it; meet him, and judge for yourself. I think you'll be impressed.

Your loyal son,

Draco Malfoy

Orochimaru looked up from the letter, an unholy glint in his yellow eyes. Lucius waited patiently, his knees bent and his head bowed in abject servitude.

"My my, Lucius. It seems your son has taken quite a liking to my old teacher. I can't say that I think much of his taste – although compared to the majority of wizards that I've met, I suppose the old man would be impressive…"

Lucius was filled with fear for his son. He served at Orochimaru's whim, but he had no wish to bring his son to the homicidal maniac's attention. He would do anything to keep Draco from getting hurt, even give up his own life… but if Orochimaru decided that he wanted to bring Draco into his twisted schemes, there would be nothing that Lucius could do. Orochimaru was as far above him in power as the Dark Lord, and Lucius honestly wasn't sure if he might be stronger. It seemed blasphemy to say that about the Dark Lord, but there it was.

"What is your will, Lord Orochimaru?" Lucius kept his eyes on the ground.

"I'm not yet sure, Lucius," Orochimaru said slowly. His whole body seemed to quiver with anticipation. "But rest assured, when I decide what course to take you will be the first to know."

His dry cackle made Lucius' skin crawl, and echoed strangely off the high ceiling and walls of Malfoy Manor.