"Lovely," Andromeda smirked, eyeing the group around the table. At one side of her, Sirius glowered, her sister looked bored across from him with Lucius Malfoy eyeing Remus Lupin as if he couldn't believe the man was sitting at his table again, Corban Yaxley and the Lestrange brothers rounded them off. "No Narcissa?"
"She and Draco have taken Aquila out."
"To where?"
"Flourish and Blotts I believe, an after dinner treat" Rodolphus shrugged, brushing away a feather from the front of his robes with a scowl. "Now shall we?"
"Very well, give me what you have," Andromeda gestured grandly, reminding them all of Narcissa.
A bundle of parchment fluttered over to her and she moved closer to Sirius so he and Remus could see. "Interesting," Remus muttered as his eyes flew over the page. "But what if…" he scribbled something on a spare piece of parchment.
"Add in this," Sirius commanded, adding something underneath his equation.
Andromeda frowned, "But won't that trigger that one?" she pointed to the original parchment, both men stared at it.
"Maybe," Remus replied slowly.
Rabastan sighed, "Might I suggest making it visible to all of us?"
"Oh, yes I imagine that would help." Andromeda waved her wand in a complicated pattern over the original parchment, the arithmancy standing out vividly in the air. Remus completed the same spell over his spare piece.
Rodolphus frowned, his eyes darting between the equations. "What if…." he began slowly, "we added this…"
They all watched as he swapped the beginning and end of Remus's equation, adding in a complicated sequence in the middle.
"Doesn't it counteract that?" Bella jabbed her wand sharply at the equations.
"Fuck." he muttered.
Two hours later, voices in the hallway disturbed them, "Auntie Cissa? Will Daddy get me a unicorn do you think? Or a niffler?"
Draco's loud bark of laughter masked whatever Narcissa had replied.
Bella swivelled to look at her husband, "No."
Looking torn, Rodolphus sent her a weak smile, "Perhaps the unicorn rather than the niffler?"
"Mother of Merlin," Bella muttered. "What part of no was difficult to understand, husband?"
"The part that means upsetting our daughter, darling," he retorted, muttering about beaks and feathers under his breath.
Andromeda hid her smirk as Sirius and Remus both gaped at them.
"How are you getting along?" Narcissa checked, gliding into the room.
"Mummy, Daddy, Uncle Bast, PUPPY MAN!"
They all winced at the volume of her last exclamation as Aquila tugged Draco impatiently into the room only to let him go to barrel into Sirius' knees. "Will you be a dog now?"
"Um I…" he glanced around the room looking for help but finding none. "Of course."
"Most spoiled witch in the entirety of Britain," Draco muttered with an amused shake of his head as Sirius transformed and began chasing a giggling Aquila around the table.
"It's like I wasn't even here," Lucius pouted, making Andromeda snort. Loudly.
"Are you finished?" Narcissa redirected quickly.
"Almost." Rabastan replied with a heavy sigh. "We've one link we're still struggling with, the rest of the theory is sound though."
Narcissa held out her hand imperiously, Draco peering over her shoulder. "You're all idiots," she muttered.
"Pardon?" Bella barked.
"Once you're at this stage all you need is a simple finite. Obviously."
Bella blinked, snatching the parchment from her sister's hand. "Well fuck." she muttered five minutes later. "Who's up first then?"
"Crabbe? Goyle? Let's test on a flunkie first, surely?" Rodophus replied.
"Good call," Bella agreed quickly, "Anyone who cannot stomach it, get out."
All of them remained stubbornly seated. "Dixie?" Rabastan called, waiting for the elf to appear, "Take Miss Aquila to the library, please. She'll need a story before bed.."
"Yes Master Bast." the elf nodded, reaching for a pouting Aquila.
"I'll go with her," Sirius transformed quickly, "I have no need to see the thing being removed until you've worked out the kinks."
Rodolphus nodded, "Might I suggest silencing charms…just in case."
Sirius grimaced, but inclined his head, holding out his hand "Come on then little witch, say goodnight and then you can show Uncle Pads where the best stories are."
Bella grinned as Crabbe snr screamed most pleasingly. Only the unfortunate knowledge that it would be them if they didn't work out how to control the pain kept her from being too gleeful. After twenty minutes the man had passed out, and a further ten saw the Mark completely gone from his beefy arm.
"Works then," Rabastan mused. "Who knows how to put it back?"
They all froze. "We'll extract memories of his exploits. That should be enough." Rodolphus dismissed finally.
A chalk-white Draco stared at the unconscious man looking close to vomiting before voicing hesitantly, "Tell me you're going to knock us out?"
"Seems as good a plan as any," Bella replied briskly. "Dreamless sleep? Draught of living death?"
"Get Severus here," Lucius commanded, "he can check whether either of those things interact with that ," he gestured carelessly towards the parchment housing their formulas.
"I'll contact him… perhaps from Hogsmeade, the owl will reach him quickly from there," Rodolphus murmured, "And maybe if we're lucky I'll meet Alecto or Amycus on my journey."
"Nothing permanent," Andromeda warned, "We're sending them to Azkaban, remember?"
He pouted in response, heading for the floo.
Severus stared around the group of unlikely co-conspirators and tried not to grimace. Lucius was going to force him to endure Christmas with Sirius's bloody Black and the terrifying Nymphadora. He had been almost vibrating with glee when he told him. Arsehole. He briefly pondered what the fuck he had done to deserve that before forcibly turning his mind to the far less horrific thought of intense pain and being under someone's wand. He could cope with that.
He had only been allowed to leave because Dumbledore wanted to keep up appearances and now he was going to have to come up with a story to feed him for why Rodolphus summoned him. Perhaps he should let them remove his Mark without any sort of potion and then he could just tell him that Rodolphus was bored and wanted someone to torture. Albus would believe him. He could make it convincing after all. Silently he poked one of the equations, sending one of his own to lie underneath it. It shimmered faintly in response before turning a violent red. "Not Dreamless sleep, he concluded, vanishing it quickly before sending a second equation in its place. The equation seemed to blink before merging into one. "Draught of living death it is"
"And do you have some?" Lucius checked.
He rolled his eyes. "I am the Dark Lord's pet Potions Master, what do you think?"
"It's curable…so…no?" he hedged.
Severus sighed heavily. "It's only curable if you allow someone to administer the cure. Knowing that your loved one can be cured but won't be unless you comply with his demands is an…interesting form of torture for those he wishes to persuade. As is dosing someone and burying them alive and taunting their families with the knowledge that if only they'd done as he'd bid their family member would have survived."
"So…yes then?"
"Yes Lucius," he sighed heavily. "I have Draught of Living Death. So shall we get on with it? I assume he'll return for Christmas to show what a benevolent dictator he is by allowing the torture to stop before we lose control of our bodily functions."
Fair point," Lucius agreed with a grimace. "Who's up first?"
"Me." Draco demanded quickly, "The sooner this is gone the better."
"I'll go too, surely we don't need to do it one at a time?" Lucius voiced.
Two hours later, a huddle of now ex-Death Eaters stared at their pristine arms. "I feel…lighter." Lucius mused.
"Me too," Rodolphus agreed sounding awestruck.
Severus scowled. "I feel just as annoyed as I was before, when do you intend to start shipping the rest off to Azkaban?"
"Now, I think," Narcissa instructed briskly, checking the time. "Let's owl the rest while we're at it, we can invite them for drinks, it would hardly be out of the ordinary; the Dark Lord always did like to wait until the most inconvenient times. Sell it as a pre-Christmas get-together. Bella, Dolph, if you could create portkeys to the Ministry. Remus, Sirius contact Kingsley if you would, let's warn him they're coming."
"Yes, Commander." Sirius saluted cheekily.
She rolled her eyes, "If I were in charge we would not be having so many issues," she muttered. "Now. Sister. I suggest you invite my niece to dinner. Oh…and someone should see about Sirius' pardon."
"And a locked room." Andromeda returned.
"Pardon?"
"A locked room, for when his Lordship returns in case the goblins don't have a plan they are willing to share."
"Ah. Yes. Good catch. Nyx?"
"Yes Mistress?"
"Ward the green bedroom if you please, ensure Mr Riddle cannot leave or harm anyone once he's entered."
The elf's smile was feral, "Yes, Mistress."
"Well then, now that's sorted, Sirius I imagine you should prepare your Mr Potter sooner rather than later."
Sirius groaned in response, "He's going to be so angry."
"Not my problem. Now is Peter dealt with?"
A vicious, feral look took over both Remus and Sirius' faces. "He's not quite…well. He's breathing. For now."
"Do get on with it, Cousin!" she scolded.
"He can't go anywhere," Sirius shrugged, "He has no limbs."
Narcissa paused. "I…see."
"In an entirely unrelated note, did you know that a fabric sealing spell works on people? Stops the blood staining the floors."
Narcissa sighed heavily as Bella cackled. "I rather think we might get on better than I had anticipated, Cousin."
"Bella! Portkeys. Sirius, for the love of all the Gods, stop playing with your food!"
"Food…" he mumbled thoughtfully. "Whatever happened to Hermione's cat?"
Several confused faces stared back at him. "Pardon?"
"Well…Crooks is a good boy and he wanted to eat Peter back in their third year. Whats say we let him?"
"I'll check Hogwarts." Severus groaned reluctantly when all eyes turned to him before sweeping out of the room.
"I'll go speak to Kingsley," Corban offered, nodding his head at Sirius and Remus who were now almost bouncing, "those two will be useless until we've got that cat."
"Very well," Narcissa allowed magnanimously. "Remus, go and read, Dixie will take you to the library, Sirius…go run in the gardens. I cannot bear your restlessness. I'll inform you when Severus returns."