A Deeper Connection: A New Beginning

A Deeper Connection - Part II

"Wonderful," Harry smiled, his eyes filled with anticipation.

"But will that be enough?" the Potions Master injected, "what if he decides to return to the British Isles before the next Wizengamot session?"

"I doubt that," Harry chuckled, his smile turning even wider, "with all the leads he will be confronted with, he will be quite busy. Additionally, his wanted Defence Against the Dark Arts professor might make a few unexpected reappearances."

"Quirrell?" the Lord of the Prince family asked, one eyebrow raised, "I thought he disappeared."

"He is currently hiding in a shielding in the Swiss Alps behind the Fidelius Charm," his equal swiftly explained, "there is a Tracking Rune hidden inside the fake Philosopher's Stone. Since it was done with Parselscript, it is nearly impossible to find and remove unless you are a Parselmouth. We will know once he has left the Fidelus Charm, which he will. A few days ago, an anonymous letter reached him, or better one of his post boxes rented under a false name, advising him that he might get help unravelling the magic of the stone with the help of some shady Alchemists in Liechtenstein. He will probably seek them out over the next few days. That should be enough of a distraction to keep Dumbledore a busy, busy bee."

"But is that really enough time?" Severus asked, sounding concerned, "it will be rather suspicious if neither of you attend the trial of the Lestranges, or if the two of you enter Courtroom Ten with strong remnants of Dark magic still detectable."

"The trial is still ten days away," Tom explained calmly, "thus giving us enough time to conduct plenty of Cleansing Rituals. Under normal circumstances, I would prefer to spend two weeks out of public, but from experience, I can say that one week will suffice to dispose of the majority of the excess Dark magic. Therefore, we should be fine."

Looking rather doubtful, Severus' onyx eyes bore into the Dark Lord and his Equal, "So, you plan on going through with this today, are you not?"

"Today will be the perfect opportunity," Tom said, as a dark smile was making its way on his face, "according to Ragnok, their schedule has not changed."

"Then," the Potions Master began, his attention now solely focussed on Harry, "I must ask you one last time: are you ready?"

"Yes, I am," his Equal answered without the slightest bit of hesitation, "inform Corvus and Lucius that we will depart soon."

When Tom stepped out of the fireplace into the lavish entrance hall of Malfoy Manor later that afternoon, both Lords were already waiting for them. With a fair trial of his sons on the horizon, it seemed like a massive weight had been taken off the shoulders of his old friend. During their previous meetings, Corvus certainly had not appeared to be as relaxed as he was now. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Malfoy family looked much different. Lucius seemed rather tense.

"Lucius, I hope the Ritual Chamber has been properly cleansed," the Dark Lord said once the customary greeting had been exchanged, his voice bearing a steely undertone that left no room for errors and disobedience as he was fishing for the reason of the tension of the blond lord.

"My Lord," Lucius replied quickly, trying his best to avoid any sorts of negative repercussions, "I have cleansed the Ritual Chamber thrice myself. All remnants of your resurrection should have been removed."

Since the words were delivered with a surprising amount of confidence, Tom doubted that the cleansing of the Ritual Chamber was the true source for Lucius' discomfort. With this out of the picture, he had a good idea what the true reason was, especially the way the blond was eyeing his Muggle jeans and jumper.