It was four in the morning and the first hint of the approaching sunrise was just beginning to appear in the sky as the tawny owl winged its way across the Wiltshire countryside. The letter tied to its leg had been written in a hurry, and the writer had urged the bird to fly with all the haste it could muster.
Soundlessly it soared above a line of oak trees and then passed through a protective ward. Ahead there loomed a manor house. The keen eyes of the owl made out the shapes of three or four white peacocks sleeping together beside a fountain. The owl had been to this manor before, but there had been many more peacocks back then. The owl wondered what had happened to them.
The owl located and open window on the second floor and swooped inside. Malfoy Manor was dark, but that was of no concern to the owl. The room that it had entered was the master bedroom, though it was currently unoccupied. The door that led out into the hallway beyond was open and the owl flew through, searching for someone to give its letter to.
It flew along the corridor and down two flights of stairs before coming spotting a person. He was a short man dressed all in black, standing in front of a door as through to guard it. The magical charms that were placed on post owls told the bird that the person it had to give its letter to was on the other side of the door.
The man saw the owl coming and opened the door behind him. "You have an owl, my Lord," he announced.
"Let it in," replied a voice on the other side of the door.
The man pushed the door open and the owl flew through. There was only one man on the other side of the door, if indeed he could be called a man at all. The owl had never seen a person so ugly, and who radiated such an evil aura.
Bound to its duty the owl flew down and dropped the letter into his lap before turning in mid-air and soaring straight back towards the door, fully intending to get as far away from the man as it could, as fast as it could.
It was less than six feet from the door when the snake struck, lunging upwards with its mouth wide open. Dozens of needle-like fangs pierced the owl's body and pumped in enough venom to bring down a water buffalo. The owl screeched in agony, and its wings beat furiously on either side of the snake's head, but to no avail. In a matter of seconds the owl slipped into unconsciousness and the snake began to swallow its early breakfast.
Lord Voldemort watched all this with an amused smile on his face. Nagini was such a ruthless companion. Cross breeding a black mamba and a reticulated python had not been an easy task as, despite the fact that they were both snakes, they were not closely related, but it had been worth it. Nagini was the embodiment of the two most lethal aspects of the two kinds of snakes, the toxicity of the venomous species and the crushing strangulation of the constrictors.
Turning his attention away from his pet, Voldemort opened the letter in his hands. It was from Thaddeus Nott, one of his longest serving followers.
My Lord,
I have just received word from my sources within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that Severus Snape has been captured at the scene of a crime and is being questioned extensively. My sources to not yet know of the crime he committed or how far the questioning will go, but I am aware that the Department of Mysteries may be involved to some extent in the questioning process. As you were hoping to operate in secret for the time being it is needless to say that Snape's capture could potentially leave us exposed.
I await further instructions.
Yours in servitude,
Thaddeus Nott, Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Nott.
Nott still insisted on using the title of 'Ancient and Noble' for his house despite the fact that they had been stripped of the 'Noble' status some years ago.
Voldemort set the letter aside and began to think. Snape's capture had the potential to be disastrous for him at this point. Even before his resurrection he had planned to keep a low profile immediately following his return and, thanks to the Ministry's determination to not believe that he had returned, that had remained his modus operandi even after the Potter runt had escaped him.
There were things that he had needed to do before restarting his reign of terror, and he had not yet done them. Although most of those who had escaped prison following his temporary banishment had returned to his side, there weren't many of them. Thirty wizards were dangerous, especially with Voldemort leading them, but he needed more.
Macnair was currently off recruiting from the giant colonies and attempts had been made to contact Fenrir Greyback about restarting their old alliance but neither had yet yielded significant results. Recruiting of the Dementors of Azkaban was also a proving painstakingly slow process and until Voldemort had them on side it would be foolish even for on as powerful as he to attempt to 'rescue' those followers of his who were imprisoned with Azkaban's walls.
He had not yet gotten around to contacting the vampires or to recruiting wizards from other countries.
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