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Serpentine Series	By : HarmonyB Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 12060 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN REGARDS TO THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM NOR DO I MAKE MONEY OFF OF THIS STORY.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
The door banged shut as soon as the two of them were safely inside. Harmony squinted, trying to make out her surroundings in the dark, dusty shop. A small, glowing orb near the back of the room emitted enough light for her to make out the silhouettes of several figures.
Harmony saw Master's face nearest to the glow, and noticed that he was the one supporting the lighted orb in his hand. His eyes seemed almost drawn to her like a moth to flame as she stood watching him.
"Took you long enough," complained one of the male Death Eaters. Harmony couldn't see who he was, though she thought she recognized his voice.
"Miss Hangleton has not yet been educated in the art of Apparition," Snape replied. "I had to assist her. It was difficult, but it appears we made it here in one piece."
Harmony's cheeks flushed. She hated to be reminded of how young and inexperienced she was compared to the others.
"Well, of course," the man grumbled, "just take your bloody time when any minute now Aurors could be upon us."
"Enough, Darius," Master said sternly. "Everyone is here now. Let's get this over with. The six of you I chose earlier, go out and search every corner between here and Borgin and Burkes. It's only a block away, so don't take long. I don't want one second of trouble or it'll be on your heads."
"Yes, my Lord," said many voices scattered throughout the dark shop. Footsteps passed by Harmony as the Death Eaters left the shop. The evening sun lit up the large room briefly when the door opened, and Harmony saw that Snape had left with the others.
Voldemort was standing near the back of the room with a broad-shouldered wizard beside him. The door closed, leaving everything dark for the glowing orb which accentuated Voldemort's clear blue eyes.
"Go stand watch by the window, Felix," he said to the man who stood next to him.
Felix jumped in surprise, and then half ran to the window, casting a glance at Harmony as he passed. His expression was grave as he stared out the window with his wand firmly in his hand.
Harmony and Voldemort closed the gap between them as one, meeting somewhere in the middle of the room. When they were close together, Master moved the orb away from her face so it wouldn't blind her. She could see how dusty the place was when he let out a breath and dust swirled in clouds around their faces.
"I remember my first Apparition," he said. His eyes glanced at Felix across the room and then he leaned in close and spoke in a lower tone. "I lost an eyebrow once."
"No," she whispered in awe.
He nodded. "But if you share that fact with anyone, you will pay."
She shook her head, unsure if he was joking with her. "I won't."
He stared at her. "Your hair looks shorter." He brought a hand up as if to stroke her light brown locks, but dropped it when she flinched. "Snape must not have put you back together right."
"Oh no! Really?" she gasped and shot a hand up to brush at her bangs.
He chuckled lightly, mocking, and she dropped her hand from her hair in a huff.
"So," he said, "you don't know how to Apparate?"
Harmony shook her head, hoping he wasn't going to criticize her for it. She saw with a sinking feeling that his demeanor had switched from an kind of camaraderie to that of the dark and commanding Lord.
"It is crucial for you to know how," he told her. "We will frequently be involved in situations that need a quick escape. It will have to be the very next ability I teach you."
"Yes, my Lord."
"You had to side-Apparate here, yes?" he asked. "Hm, if I remember right, that's not the most pleasant experience—like having the life sucked right out of you. Though it's not as bad as a Dementor's Kiss, I suspect. Once you learn how, it will not be so bad. It happens quicker, and you get used to the feeling of your body piecing away and then forming back together again. More like a pop and less of a shoom—"
"Why didn't you tell me about this mission?" Harmony asked quickly, before he could say anything else. She had been wondering whether she should bother asking. She was afraid he would be angered by her questioning his motives.
"I only just found out the mission could pan out last evening at the festival, while I met with my followers. I tried to tell you this morning, but your mind seemed preoccupied," he explained.
He had asked her to sleep in his bed with him. Of course she seemed preoccupied.
"I understand," she answered softly. "So why are we here? What're you after?"
"Several years ago I learned of a now very rare object I knew I would find worth owning. This object is properly called a Vanishing cabinet. It is about the size of a large wardrobe, and whatever is placed inside this cabinet, be it alive or inanimate, disappears, but not into thin air. Whatever goes inside travels to another Vanishing cabinet that exists somewhere else."
They sounded familiar. She was sure she'd heard of them in one of her history books. "They're rare? Have you ever actually seen one?"
"As it turns out, I have," he said. "Although the Ministry had decreed they all be destroyed, some people hid their cabinets. Today only three are known to exist in working condition. One of them is waiting now, merely steps away from this very spot. This one in particular was hidden in a cave in Sweden. I understand that the cave was inspected, but anti-intruder spells cast around it kept the Aurors from discovering its treasure. It's funny when you think about it. The only way the Aurors could have gotten what they wanted would've been to use the very think they were trying to destroy."
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Felix staring at them in disbelief. It was obvious the man had never witnessed Lord Voldemort in such a casual conversation before. She shifted her feet, glancing away. Noticing her discomfort, he looked over at the gaping Felix and cast a quick Cruciatus Curse at him. Felix gave little cry of pain and hunkered on the floor beneath the window pane.
She quickly spoke to defuse his anger. "Well then, I guess you could say whoever hid that cabinet got the last laugh, then."
"Not precisely," Voldemort said, focusing back on her. "Within the group of people who had hidden the cabinet were insiders for the Scandinavian Wizarding Ministry. They stole the cabinet, but were killed by greedy men—not unlike myself—who wanted to have it. I believe this Vanishing cabinet has had fifteen previous owners to date, our Borgin & Burkes shop being the latest."
"And you're going to kill the shop owner, aren't you?" she asked with a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Of course I am," he replied simply. "If he saw us and I let him live, he would just tell the Ministry I had the cabinet now. And I need the Ministry ignorant of my plans."
"But you said the cabinets are illegal, yes? If he went to the Ministry they would ask him where we had gotten it, and how he knew about it. He might as well reserve himself a spot in Azkaban if he outright admitted that you stole the thing from him. Do we really have to worry about him tattling?"
"He could lie," Voldemort pointed out. "Anyway, it's not a risk I'm willing to take."
Harmony knew by his tone that he was finished discussing the topic, and she hoped that she had been able to save the shop owner's life, though she doubted it. Then she had another thought, and said, "If there have been fifteen previous owners, most of who killed to possess it, aren't you worried another person will come and kill you so they can steal it?"
"Steal it from me?" he asked with an amused chuckle. But Harmony saw a flicker of doubt cross his mind, and he added, "Even if someone dared to steal from me, it won't be long now until I can use the cabinet for its true purpose. Once I have done so it will be of no further use to me."
"What purpose—?" Harmony began when Felix interrupted.
"They're coming back, my Lord," he said as he ran back to his Master's side with an excited grin. Voldemort squared his shoulders and waited for the six Death Eaters to enter. As they seeped back into the abandoned shop, the Death Eaters had mixed expressions—some relieved and others disappointed.
"We searched all around and there wasn't one troublemaker," complained the lanky witch, whose name Harmony hadn't bothered to remember. "Not even one! I was so looking forward to blasting an Auror's guts across the walls."
Harmony's stomach churned, hearing this. "Auror guts across the walls" was a sight she could do without seeing.
"We did corner a couple of suspicious-looking individuals," Snape said, standing at the front of the group. "But we deduced that they were no more than beggars."
"Did you deal with them?" the Dark Lord asked. "If I were you, anyone I was unsure of would be considered a threat. I would not risk it."
The Death Eaters exchanged nervous glances at this. Snape replied, "No, my Lord, we did not deem it necessary. However, there was one unfortunate incident involving Mr. Bartimus Crouch, Jr. I would have been better pleased if he had not brought any attention our way, but it cannot be undone now."
Barty beamed and took a bow as if to an audience after a play. The way he was smiling reminded Harmony of the smile he'd worn when he was hovering over her immobile body after Master had rescued her from the labyrinth. His wicked imagination was at work.
"Barty was looking down an alley when a beggar man jumped out. He was clearly unarmed, but Bartimus made it clear that tonight was the last of his begging days."
"He could have been an Auror," Barty added meekly as he twiddled his wand between dirty fingers. He looked momentarily at Voldemort, but then his eyes rested squarely on Harmony when he said, "I didn't want to risk it."
She fought back an urge to gag at the thought of a man's dead body left lying in an alleyway. She imagined people passing the alley but taking no notice of the rotting corpse until the smell caught their attention. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep her composure. It was incredible to her that the same wand Barty had used to kill the man was also the one he'd used to heal her of the damage Bellatrix had done.
"But, other than that, my Lord," Snape spoke up. "We appear to have the streets to ourselves. We should be able to retrieve it without trouble."
All eyes were on their Master now. Everyone knew that Snape was one of Voldemort's more favored followers, and the Dark Lord would take him at his word. It was no surprise when Master nodded to Snape before he spoke.
"Well then," he said with a raised brow. "What are you all waiting for?"
All of the Death Eaters quickly assembled and slipped out of the gloomy shop in an orderly manner.
In her ear, he added, "We will bring up the back."
Harmony swallowed nervously as she came into perfect step beside him. As the cold air outside the shop hit her, her first thought was, Out of all the dangerous moments I expected to encounter when I came to the Dark Lord, this one is the most likely to get me killed. But she shook away her pessimistic thoughts, and instead hoped they might walk away from this mission incident-free.
- 17
- 18
- 19
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Serpentine Series