Bella was sat at the long, ornate table in the drawing room at Malfoy Manor – the furniture which usually filled the room had been pushed to the sides to accommodate the long table. The room had not been lit well, at the Dark Lord's request. Slowly revolving above the table was a woman. Bella was not sure who she was, but knew that there was a reason for her presence in the room. She appeared to be unconscious, as she was not saying anything and her eyes looked to be closed. The figure was placed above the middle of the table, where Bella was sat, beside Narcissa, who was next to Lucius, who was next to Draco. None of the Malfoy's looked particularly pleased with the way the evening was going, but Draco in particular looked extremely uncomfortable. The rest of the chairs around the table were filled by Death Eaters, although two were empty, apart from the head of the table. This was where the Dark Lord was sitting. He was beginning to look impatient – the two who were missing were almost late for the meeting. Bella hoped that Snape would be late. Then the Dark Lord would not be pleased with him. The door to the drawing room opened – Yaxley and Snape walked into the room.
"Yaxley, Snape, you are nearly late." The Dark Lord said in his high, clear voice. He was sat in front of the fireplace, which made it difficult to see his face properly if you were not accustomed to the dimness of the room. "Severus, here" the Dark Lord said, indicating the seat to his right. "Yaxley – beside Dolohov." Bella watched as the new arrivals took their places at the table. "So?" the Dark Lord asked Snape.
"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."
"Saturday … at nightfall," the Dark Lord repeated. He fixed Snape with his red eyes that could see everything. "Good. Very good. And this information comes –"
"– from the source we discussed," Snape replied calmly.
"My Lord." It was Yaxley who had spoken, leaning forward from his position next to Dolohov at the far end of the table. Everyone turned to look at him. "My Lord, I have heard differently." Yaxley paused, as if expecting the Dark Lord to say something, but he did not, so Yaxley continued. "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen." Bella turned to look to the other end of the table – Snape was smiling.
"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible," Snape said.
"I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," Yaxley persisted.
"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain. I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry," Snape retorted.
"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" It was Amycus Carrow who had spoken, and he began to laugh wheezily, which echoed around the room.
"My Lord, Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy–" The Dark Lord held up a hand to stop Yaxley, and turned back to Snape.
"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"
"At the home of one of the Order. The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."
"Well, Yaxley? Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"
"My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have – with difficulty, and after great effort – succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse," Yaxley said. Bella noticed that most of the people around the table looked impressed at this statement, and Dolohov clapped Yaxley on his back. The Dark Lord, however, did not look impressed.
"It is a start, but Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."
"Yes – my Lord, that is true – but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can work together to bring Scrimgeour down."
"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," the Dark Lord said. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."
"We are at an advantage there, my Lord. We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately." Yaxley seemed determined to get some approval from the Dark Lord, which Bella found pitiful.
"He will not do either. The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place," Snape said.
"All the better," said the Dark Lord. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far." The Dark Lord glanced up at the slowly revolving body before continuing. "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs. Bella hoped that the Dark Lord wouldn't say anything about the shambles at the Ministry – she hated being in the Dark Lords bad books. Looking around, she saw that most of the other Death Eaters seemed to be thinking the same thing. None of them wanted to be blamed for the fact that Harry Potter still lived.
"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be." There was suddenly a loud and terrible groan of misery and pain – it seemed almost to have come in response to what the Dark Lord had just said. Bella and the Malfoys were used to this occasional cry from the cellar, having lived with it for more than a year. Many of the other Death Eaters around the table jumped and seemed startled at the sound. "Wormtail, have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?" The Dark Lord had not changed the tone of his voice, nor had he stopped looking at the revolving body.
"Yes, m-my Lord," Wormtail gasped. He hurriedly scrambled from his seat, scampered to the door and out of the room.
"As I was saying," the Dark Lord continued, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter." The Death Eaters all looked shocked, as if he had declared that he wanted to borrow an arm from one of them. "No volunteers? Let's see … Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore." Malfoy looked up. His skin looked yellow and waxy in the light from the fire, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. That was what his time in Azkaban had done to him, although Bella expected that having the Dark Lord living in his house had also affected his appearance.
"My Lord?" He asked.
"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."
"I …"Bella saw Lucius glance towards Narcissa, who was looking straight ahead, also pale in the firelight. Bella could see that under the table, she grasped his wrist quickly, before letting go. At this signal from his wide, Malfoy reached into his robes and pulled out his wand. He passed it along to Narcissa, who passed it to Bella, who passed it to Rookwood who was on her other side. Eventually it reached the Dark Lord. He examined the wand closely.
"What is it?"
"Elm, my Lord," Malfoy whispered.
"And the core?"
"Dragon – dragon heartsting."
"Good," said the Dark Lord. He pulled his own wand from his robes and compared the lengths of the two wands. Lucius moved his arm. It seemed as though, for a fraction of a second, that he expected to receive the Dark Lord's wand in exchange for his own. The Dark Lord noticed.
"Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?" Some of those around the table sniggered. "I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less happy of late. … What is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?"
"Nothing – nothing, my Lord!"
"Such lies, Lucius …" The Dark Lord's soft hiss seemed to continue after he had stopped speaking. A couple of the Death Eaters barely managed to repress a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy was sliding across the floor underneath the table. Nagini reached the Dark Lords chair and climbed up it. She eventually came to rest on his shoulders, and he stroked it, all the while looking straight at Lucius.
"Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"
"Of course, my Lord," Malfoy said, a tremble in his voice. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it – we do."
"My Lord," Bella interjected, "it is an honour to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no greater pleasure."
"No higher pleasure," the Dark Lord repeated. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you." These words delighted Bella because she knew that the Dark Lord was pleased with her unwavering service. She felt tears of delight prick her eyes.
"My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"
"No higher pleasure … even compared with the happy even that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"
Bella was confused. She was not sure what event the Dark Lord was referring to. "I don't know what you mean, my Lord."
"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."
All of the Death Eaters around the table began to laugh and jeer at Bella and the Malfoys, which enraged her. She didn't control the girl. Why was it her fault that she had married the werewolf? She decided to fight back, as she had done the whole of her adult life. "She is no niece of ours, my Lord!" Bella cried. "We – Narcissa and I – have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."
"What say you, Draco?" The Dark Lord asked in his quiet voice, which somehow managed to carry over the laughing and jeering which still emanated from around the table. "Will you babysit the cubs?" This made the Death Eaters laugh even harder.
"Enough, enough" the Dark Lord said. "Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time. You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."
"Yes, my Lord," Bella whispered. She felt a wave of gratitude for her master, for it seemed that he was allowing them to redeem themselves. "At the first chance!"
"You shall have it, and in your family, so in the world … we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true blood remain. …" The Dark Lord raised Lucius' wand and pointed it to the still slowly revolving figure above the table. The figure suddenly came to life with a groan and began to struggle against the invisible bonds which held them.
"Do you recognise our guest, Severus?"
Snape looked up, as did all the other Death Eaters, as if they had been given permission to be curious about this person.
"Severus! Help me!" Bella heard that the prisoner was a woman. She had spoken with such terror in her voice that Bella almost felt pity for her. However she must have done something to antagonise the Dark Lord if she was here, at the meeting of the Death Eaters.
"Ah, yes," Snape said.
"And you, Draco?" Bella could see her nephew out of the corner of her eye. He shook his head, rather jerkily. She noticed that now the woman was awake, Draco did not seem to want to look at her any more.
"But you would not have taken her classes. For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Bella now understood why this woman was here. There were murmurs of comprehension from around the table as other Death Eaters came to understand. Alecto Carrow, a broad and hunched woman with pointed teeth, cackled. She was sat next to her brother, Amycus, at the end of the table furthest from the Dark Lord.
"Yes … Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles … how they are not so different from us …" Avery spat of the floor, and Charity Burbage revolved so that she could see Snape again.
"Severus … please … please …" Bella wondered why the woman seemed to be imploring Snape to save her. Although she did not trust Snape, she knew that he would be unable to do anything to save the woman without losing favour with the Dark Lord. If he did anything, the Dark Lord would come to see that Bella's suspicions were correct. If he did anything, he would also be killed tonight.
"Silence!" The Dark Lord said, pointing Lucius' wand at Burbage, who fell silent immediately. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defence of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance. … She would have us all mate with Muggles … or, no doubt, werewolves. …" None of the Death Eaters were laughing now – the contempt and anger were easy to hear in the Dark Lord's voice. Burbage had spun to face Snape again, and Bella presumed that she was crying as tears were dripping onto the table from where she was suspended.
"Avada Kedavra." The green light which emanated from Lucius' wand lit up the drawing room, and the woman fell with a crash onto the table, which creaked and trembled. Quite a few of the Death Eaters jumped in their chairs, and Bella saw that Draco had jumped so much that he had fallen onto the floor. He might still be a teenager, but he was becoming an embarrassment.
"Dinner, Nagini," the Dark Lord said, and the great snake, which he had been stroking, slithered from his shoulders and ate the woman in one swallow.
Although Bella had been expecting the woman to die, she still felt shock at the sight of the lifeless body being eaten by the snake. She wasn't sure why. She had watched many people die, and had caused many people to die. She had watched Nagini eat many people, both before the Dark Lord fell nearly sixteen years ago and since her escape from Azkaban about a year and a half ago. Nothing had changed about her loyalty to the Dark Lord, so why did this scene make her feel so uncomfortable? Draco had picked himself up off the floor and was now sat back in his seat, but he was not looking at the snake, laying on the table.