They didn't hear anything from the Dark Lord until the next evening. He had apparated into the drawing room and seen Bella sat on the armchair by the fire instantly. "We have to go. Call the other Death Eaters here NOW!" Bella had done as he had asked, pressing the Dark Mark on her most of the Death Eaters had assembled, which took mere minutes, the Dark Lord addressed them all. "There will likely be a battle tonight. We will go to Hogwarts – Potter is going to be there. We will not go into battle immediately though – we will give the school time to surrender him, so gather as many people as you can who will fight with us, and meet me at the school at half past ten tonight. That gives you three hours. DO NOT BE LATE!" He watched as they began to disaparated but gave Bella a look that she knew well. It was one telling her to stay as he had something else to tell her. Every one of the Death Eaters who had assembled in the Malfoy's drawing room had gone now – Bella knew that Narcissa was somewhere in the house – she didn't have a Dark Mark, so was not obligated to join them at such times. "I need you to come with me, Bella. I trust you. You have been faithful to me since you joined my cause, so I need you with me tonight." Bella nodded.
"Shall I tell Narcissa about the plan, my Lord?" she asked tentatively. He was in such a constant rage nowadays that the slightest thing might provoke him.
"Yes. Tell her to meet us at half past ten with the others. Do it quickly though, we need to move!" Bella nodded again and hurried out of the room. She found Narcissa in the dining room, eating her dinner. She quickly explained what had just happened, and that Narcissa should meet them at half past ten at Hogwarts. Narcissa asked no questions, just nodded and agreed to meet them. Bella hurried back to join the Dark Lord in the drawing room. "We need to get a message to Snape and the Carrow's – that is where we are going now." He held out a hand, she took it, and they apparated to the boundary line of Hogwarts, opened the gates with winged-boars on them and began to walk towards the front doors of the castle. Snape met them at the door.
"How may I help you my Lord?" he asked.
"You need to let Alecto into Ravenclaw tower." The Dark Lord said simply. "Potter is going to come here tonight, and I need you and the Carrow's to be ready when he does." Snape just nodded and opened the doors wide to let them in.
As they walked through the castle, Bella noticed how unnaturally quiet it was, given that it was only eight o'clock in the evening.
The Dark Lord seemed to have noticed too. "Where is everyone, Snape?" he asked quietly.
"The children are all in their dormitories – they now have seven o'clock curfew, so they go straight to their common rooms after dinner. The staff who are not on patrol also have orders to remain in their quarters."
"Good, good." The Dark Lord muttered. "Where are the Carrow's?"
"They are on duty tonight, so they were patrolling, however, I called them into the staff room when our Dark Marks burned, in case you wished to speak to us here." Snape replied.
The Dark Lord simply nodded in reply. Bella didn't trust Snape. She hadn't done for years, but the Dark Lord trusted him, so there was nothing she could do. Snape had been leading them down various corridors, and finally they had arrived at the staff room. They all walked in. The Carrow's were the only two people sat in the room, but they stood up as the three of them walked in. The Dark Lord sat, which the rest of them took as an invitation to do likewise, and he began to talk. Twenty minutes later, Snape and Alecto had hurried off to find Professor Flitwick, so that he could open Ravenclaw Tower and let her guard from inside. Amycus had orders to begin patrolling the corridors again, so he left the staff room too. All of them had orders to press their Dark Marks if they captured Potter. It was just Bella and the Dark Lord left in the staff room.
"Are you alright, my Lord?" she asked him cautiously.
"No, Bella, I am not." Bella was taken aback – she hadn't expected a reply like that. "Tonight is going to go one of two ways, and although I have my hopes, I could not tell you what the outcome will be." Bella was even more surprised at this statement than the previous one! He sounded as if he was potentially going to die tonight. But that was impossible. He had survived the rebounding Killing Curse sixteen years ago, so what could possibly cause him to be fearing for his life? "We shall go back to Malfoy Manor to wait." He said simply. She took his hand and they disaparated.