𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

the one with the ascent

"Once everyone knows you're
a monster, you needn't do
every monstrous thing."

•

A HANDSOME MANOR house grew out of the darkness at the end of a straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond-paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the yew-hedge a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.

The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the walls followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then Snape turned the bronze handle.

The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold.

"Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late." The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.

"Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. "Yaxley - beside Rodolphus." Once the men had taken their allotted seats, Voldemort fixed his serpentine eyes on Snape and asked, "So?"

"My Lord, the Order has kept Harry Potter at the Order Headquarters at 12, Grimmauld Place. They aren't making to move him anytime soon."

"Headquarters," Voldemort repeated quietly, looking into Snape's eyes for any sort of hesitancy. There wasn't any. "Is there any way we can take the boy from there?"

"I'm afraid they changed the Fidelius Charm on the house, My Lord," Snape replied coolly. "We won't be able to infiltrate the Headquarters."

"And I'd take the liberty of assuming," Voldemort said quietly, sinisterly. "That the change of Harry Potter's location from his muggle family's place to the Headquarters was the idea of Skylar Firegold?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"My Lord, I've heard differently," Yaxley spoke out. When Voldemort made no acknowledgement of hearing him, he continued. "Dawlish the Auror let it slip that Harry Potter would be moved to a safehouse by the end of this week."

"That is too late," Voldemort said, his voice merely a bit louder than a whisper.

"I believe Dawlish was under a Confundus Charm," Snape said. Voldemort's eyes focused on him again. "If he was certain about his information, he was certainly Confunded. They probably out that as a false trail. Because I believe Harry Potter would not be moved until the end of next month. The Order believes the Ministry has been infiltrated."

"Well, the Order's got one thing right then, Eh!" Rabastan laughed, causing a slight uproar on the table.

That was even more late, Snape knew. Voldemort's eyes squinted and his lips curled into a sinister press. He didn't laugh.

"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"

"At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next month, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."