Rosabella Black|Daughter Of Sirius Black|(Book 7)

The Elder Wand

Why was it so easy? Because my scar had been burning for hours, yearning to show me Voldemort's thoughts? I closed my eyes on her command, and at once, the screams and bangs and all the discordant sounds of the battle were drowned until they became distant, as though I stood far, far away from them. . .

He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded up except for one. The sounds of the assault on the castle were muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant bursts of light where the castle stood, but inside the room was dark except for a solitary oil lamp.

He was rolling his wand between his fingers, watching it, his thoughts on the room in the castle, the secret room only he had ever found, the room, like the chamber, that you had to be clever and cunning and inquisitive to discover...He was confident that the boy would not find the diadem...although Dumbledore's puppet had come much farther than he ever expected...too far...

   "My Lord," said a voice, desperate and cracked.
He turned.
There was Lucius Malfoy sitting in the darkest corner, ragged and still bearing the marks of the punishment he had received after the boy's last escape. One of his eyes remained closed and puffy.   
   "My Lord. . .please. . .my son. . ."
   "If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?"
   "No – never." Malfoy whispered.
   "You must hope not."  Voldemort said
   "Aren't – aren't you afraid, my Lord that Potter might die at another hand but yours? Wouldn't it be. . .forgive me. . .more prudent to call off this battle, enter the castle, and seek him y - yourself?" Malfoy asked, his voice shaking.
    "Do not pretend Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Potter. Before the night is out, Potter will have come to find me."

Voldemort dropped his gaze once more to the wand in his fingers. It troubled him. . .and those things that troubled Lord Voldemort needed to be rearranged. . .

   "Go and fetch Snape." Voldemort commanded.
   "Snape, m - my Lord?" Malfoy said.
   "Snape. Now. I need him. There is a – service – I require from him. Go." Voldemort said

Frightened, stumbling a little through the gloom, Lucius left the room. Vodlemort continued to stand there, twirling the wand between his fingers, staring at it.

   "It is the only way, Nagini." he whispered, and he looked around, and there was the great thick snake, now suspended in midair, twisting gracefully within the enchanted, protected space he had made for her, a starry, transparent sphere somewhere between a glittering cage and a tank.

With a gasp, I pulled back and opened his eyes at the same moment my ears were assaulted with the screeches and cries, the smashes and bangs of battle.
    "He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape." I told Ron and Hermione.
    "Voldemort's sitting in the shrieking Shack? He's not – he's not even FIGHTING?" Hermione said, outraged.
   "He doesn't think he needs to fight. He thinks I'm going to go to him." I said.
   "But why?" Hermione said.
   "He knows I'm after Horcruxes – he's keeping Nagini close beside him – obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing –" I said.
   "Right. So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hermione, and I'll go and get it –" Ron said, squaring his shoulders.
I cut across Ron.
    "You two stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I –"
   "No, it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and –" Hermione said.
    "Don't even think about it." Ron snarled at her before Hermione could get farther than:
   "Ron, I'm just as capable –"