Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 173

Isabella got the wand three days later.

"What do you need it for?" Remus asked, seeing as it was only the two of them left in the house.

"I will explain," Isabella said as she filled Caramel's water tray. 

"I need to call a meeting soon enough," she said and Remus sat up straighter at this.

"James has put up a round table in one of the rooms on the third floor," Remus told her. "Although the place needs a bit of cleaning. We don't usually use the third floor. . .Maybe we'll get to cleaning it all up in the weekend,"

Isabella sat back down at the dining table and placed the box in front of her. 

She opened it and took the wand out, examining it. 

She had a use for it. 

If she had to bring Voldemort down, she needed to get his followers too. 

Lucius certainly cannot escape prison, but his sentence can be reduced. That was something she would have to assure as part of her promise to Narcissa.

The others, however, including Bellatrix, they were looking for a longer time.

If anything, Isabella wanted to put Bellatrix away for life. Mostly because she was one of Voldemort's most loyal followers, and even after her master's defeat, she would remain on loose reigns. It could bring danger upon the others.

The other Death Eaters might at least try to blend right back in, but not Bellatrix. She hadn't done it before in the books, she won't do it now.

But people hardly knew who was under the masks. 

Her first move should be to expose those faces to the world. This way, Voldemort's support from within the Ministry will slowly collapse too. 

And to do that, she needed to lure the Death Eaters out. 

She had a suspicion. . .She would have to check it later.

Along with the wand, she had also received something else. 

A letter and a little bag.

Rather curious, she opened the letter first.

'Dear Isabella,
This will not amount to compensation. But consider this as good luck wishes and gratitude from all of Hogwarts. 
Yours sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore.'

Isabella folded the letter up with a frown and took the bag. 

First, she got three clinking glass bottles of some strange liquid. The label on the bottles is what struck her.

Acromantula venom.

Nothing ever misses Dumbledore, does it? Isabella had said that she would like to have some of the venom in the Forbidden Forest and only Regulus was there to hear it. 

Even if she suspected that Dumbledore had figured it all out for himself, then that would mean that he had kept an eye on her and somehow cross-checked that she visited the Chamber. Obviously, he did. They lived in a castle without countless portraits and ghosts roaming around. All loyal to the Headmaster. 

Isabella plunged her hand into the bag and pulled out the final 'gift'.

It was a little box.

A very familiar little box.

Isabella was vaguely aware of Remus watching her intently as she opened the box and gingerly took out the golden trinket she had been keeping with her for the past four years.