“Ron, is that even possible?” Bill asked. “From what you and Ginny have said so far,
it seems the two are inseparable. How
will you get him alone?”

“We’ll find a way.
They can’t be together all the time.
We’ll just have to follow him.
The second he’s alone, we’ll grab him.”

Ginny smiled proudly at her brother. “I knew you had it in you Ron! We’ll get them back for everything! We’ll bring him here once we’ve got
him. Then we’ll send a note to the Son,
telling him we’ve got him. He’ll come
rushing in like he always has, and we’ll all be waiting for him. He can’t take all of us at once!”

Molly was thrilled with her children’s plan. “It’s perfect. Harry always goes rushing in head first to save people, he won’t
be ato rto resist.”

The rest of the night was spent planning out the
details. It wasn’t until well after
midnight that Ginny and Ron returned to Gryffindor Tower. They walked into the common room to find
Seamus sitting before the fire, a pensive expression on his face.

“Hey, Seam, why are you up so late?” Ginny asked.

“Just thinking. I
wish there was more to do against the Son and all, I feel helpless here,” he
said quietly, praying they’d take the bait.
He knew they were up to something, and that it involved their whole
family. Ginny had been receiving an
unusual amount of mail from her parents and brothers in the past day or
two.

Ron and Ginny exchanged glances. Ginny shook her head no, but Ron stood and glared at her until
she relented.

“Fine then, you tell him.
I suppose it will help having another set of eyes to follow him,” she
relented. “I’m going to bed, see you
two tomorrow.”

“G’night Gin,” Seamus said as she walked up the stairs to
the girls dorms.

Ron walked over and took a seat next to Seamus on the
couch. “We, my family that is, have
sort of come up with a plan to get rid of the Son. I mean, someone has to do it, and Dumbledore is just kind of
hopeless right now for some reason,” he began.

Seamus sat up straighter and tried to look as interested as
possible. “Really? Can I help?”

Ron smiled at his fellow Gryffindor. They were always so eager to jump in and
help out it seemed. “We’re going to
take Malfoy. That’s his weakness, you
know. Without him, he’ll be
useless. Anyway, so we’re going to
kidnap him. As soon as we can. We’ll take him to the Shrieking Shack, and
send a note to the Son. He’ll come
rushing in like he always does to try and safe his little boyfriend and we’ll
all be there waiting for him. He can’t
take us all on at once.”

Seamus stared at his housemate in what he hoped looked like
awe, was was really disbelief. How
could they possibly think that foolish little plan would work? The Son was too smart to fall for something
like that…and their chances of catching Malfoy off guard were slim to
none. They were both goodgood, and too
powerful for this plan to work. “What
can I do?”

“You’ll help us watch Malfoy, and take him out if you can
get hione.one.”

“Ok.”

--

“Blaise, I need to talk to Him. I have something really important to tell him.”

“He’ll be at training tonight, You can talk to him then.”

“Thanks.”

--

“Why do I have to do this again?” Raithos asked as Draco
dragged him forcibly down the stairs to lowest depths of the Slytherin
dungeons. This was where the training
for the potentials took place. It was unknown
to anyone not in Slytherin, even the castle kept it secret for them. Slytherins had been practicing the Dark Arts
down there for years. It was a huge
room, completely stone, like all of the oldest parts of the castle. There were no windows, as it was quite a few
floors underground. One wall consisted
entirely of a huge fireplace, to combat the damp cold that was a permanent
fixture. There were a few private rooms
set off in one corner, used for meetings or one on one instruction.

Draco sighed again.
They’d been over this numerous times already. “Because you are their leader, their supreme Lord, their almighty
ruler. You’ve got to make appearances
now and then to keep them on their toes.
Nobody wants to serve an absent king.”

“I know, I know. I’m
just not in the mood tonight.”

“Yes, you’ve said. About
a hundred times. But hey, you’ll get to
see their progress as well. See how the
newbies are coming along, yeah? It’ll
be good,” Draco said as they approached the door to the giant practice
room. He turned to face Raithos,
checking his appearance once more. They
were doing the opposite thing again, only this time, Raithos was in white, and
Draco in black. The Black Mark was
again visible on their arms, due to their short-sleeved shirts. “Ok, you’ll do,” he said, brushing an
invisible speck of lint off Raithos’ shoulder.
“Let’s go Raith.”

Raithos sighed heavily.
“Yes Mum,” he said, dodging the inevitable swipe of Draco’s hand at his
head with a grin. The grin disappeared
as he opened the door, face schooled into his ‘Dark Prince’ mask. Draco stepped in after him and took his
place to Raithos’ right, as always.

Raithos observed the scene in front of him with growing
pride. His potential Shadows were
coming along terrifically. He wanted
his Shadows to be the best of the wizarding world. The elite. He wanted the
spells and reactions they were learning here to become second nature to
them. The better they were, the faster
this little uprising would end. There
would be no great revolution, no epic battle, just a relatively quiet changing
of the guard. That is what he wanted, a
switch in power with minimal bloodshed.
If he could accomplish that, most of the wizarding world would accept
the change peacefully. Ruthlessness
would be respected, considered honorable by some even. Torture and unnecessary pain would be
fought, and this power shift would be drawn out, needlessly so.

He and Draco walked through the practicing students, easily
spotting the brightest and best. He was
pleased to see the bonds of friendship forming between those potentials from
other houses and his own Slytherin followers.
Friendship was another key to all this.
Loyalty to friends and family was infinitely stronger than loyalty to
someone feared. Many of these
non-Slytherin potentials would bring their friends over to their side. Not as shadows, no they had to be
hand-picked by Draco and Raithos, but as followers, supporters. It would help ease the transition.

Raithos stopped his musings as Blaise and Seamus approached
him.

“My Lord,” Seamus began bowing. “I need to speak to you as soon as is convenient for you.”

Raithos looked at Blaise, who nodded, confirming Seamus’
statement.

“Very well, come with me,” Raithos said, taking Draco’s hand
as they moved through the room to a door in the far corner.

They entered the room and Draco and Raithos rounded on their
spy.

“Proceed,” Draco said, crossing his arms over his
chest. Raithos stood with his hands in
his ets,ets, staring at Seamus intently.

“The Weasley’s have developed a plan to take you out, My
Lord. I convinced them last night to
include me in it,” Seamus began. He
waited for Raithos to give him the go-ahto cto continue. “They are planning to kidnap Draco and take
him to the Shrieking Shack. They will
then send you a note, detailing where he is.
They expect you to drop everything and run, like…Harry…used to.” Raithos
snorted at that. He had most definitely
lost that hard-headed hero complex in his transformation to Raithos Voldemort. “When you get there, they arenninnning to
stun you, and take you to the ministry.
They believe you aren’t powerful enough to face them all,” Seamus
finished.

“And what do you think, Seamus? Do you think I’m powerful enough?” Raithos asked, a smirk on his
face.

“I…,” Seamus faltered.
He knew Raithos could see into his mind, and would know if he lied. The consequences of that would be
severe. “I honestly don’t know. I know you are more powerful than you were
last year, but I don’t understand how, or why.”

“I’m slightly impressed, Seamus. I expected you to lie,” Raithos said with amusement tingeing his
voice. “I’ll repeat this only once for
you.yes"> Seamus knew he would never be part of the inner-circle the Son
was gathering, and information like that was to be cherished whenever it was
given.

Snape bursting into the room drew Seamus away from his train
of thought.

“You are dismissed, Seamus,” Draco said in a tone of voice
that left no room for compromise.
Seamus left immediately.

“Severus, I assume you have a wonderful reason for bursting
in here like that,” Raithos said lightly, but with a coldness in his eye that
meant he was very displeased. Such an
intrusion was a display of disrespect that could not be tolerated in front of
others. The whole room of potentials
outside had undoubtedly seen the Potions master rush in unannounced and
uninvited.

“He told me everything, My Lord.”

--

Next Chapter: Raithos’ reaction to Dumbledore’s confession
and the Weasley’s plan, and some nice pre-Christmas fluff.