Don't Stop Believing VadikV



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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
By J. K. Rowling

Chapter One
The Dark Lord Ascending
The two men appeared out of n o
where, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then,
recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction. "News?" asked the taller of the two. "The best," replied Severus Snape. The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing bramble
s, on the right by a high, neatly man i
cured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.
"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight. "It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be sati
s fied. You sound confident that your rece p
tion will be good?"
Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the di s
tance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the menТ
s way. Neither of them broke step: In silence both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.
The yew hedges muffled the sound of the menТ s footsteps. There was a rustle som e
where to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again pointing it over his co m panionТ
s head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting m a
jestically along the top of the hedge.
“He always did himself well, Lucius. Pe a
cocks …” Yaxley thrust his wand back u n
der his cloak with a snort.
A handsome manor house grew out of the dar k ness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinti
ng in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Som e where in the dark garden b
e
yond the 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 n o
body had visibly opened it.
The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumpt u ously decorated, with a magnificent ca
r
pet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall 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, si t ting at a long and ornate table. The roomТ s usual fu
r niture had been pushed car e
lessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome ma r
ble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley li n
gered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accu s
tomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious h
u man figure hanging upside down over the table, r e
volving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table b
e low. None of the people seated underneath this
singular sight were looking at it e x
cept for a pale young man sitting almost directly b e
low it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.
“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, ho w
ever, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snak e
like, 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 Ц beside Dol o
hov.”
The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table fo l
lowed Snape, and it was to him that Vold e mort spoke first.
“So?”
“My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall.”
The interest around the table sharpened palp a bly: Some stiffened, others fid
g eted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.
“Saturday … at nightfall,” repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon SnapeТ s black ones with such in
tensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, ho w
ever, looked calmly back into Vold e mortТ
s face and, after a moment or two, VoldemortТ s lipless mouth curved into som e thing like a smile.
“Good. Very good. And this inform a tion comes Ц “
“ Ц from the source we discussed,” said Snape.
“My Lord.”
Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him.
“My Lord, I have heard differently.”
Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, “Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thi r
tieth, the night before the boy turns seve n
teen.”
Snape was smiling.
“My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Daw l
ish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be su s
ceptible.”
“I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain,” said Yaxley.
“If he has been Confunded, naturally he is ce r tain,” said Snape. “I assure
you , Ya x
ley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infi
l trated the Mini s
try.”
“The OrderТ s got one thing right, then, eh?” said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.
Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wa n
dered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.
“My Lord,” Yaxley went on, “Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to tran s fer the boy
Ц “
Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Ya x ley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Vold
e mort turned back to Snape.
“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 ta
k ing him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen b
e fore next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchan
t ments to break through the rest.”
“Well, Yaxley?” Voldemort called down the t a ble, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. “
Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?”
Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.
“My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have Ц with difficulty, and after great effort Ц su c
ceeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse.”
Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked i m
pressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.
“It is a start,” said Voldemort. “But Thic k nesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be su
r rounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Mini
s terТ s life will set me back a long way.”
“Yes Ц my Lord, that is true Ц but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforc e
ment, Thicknesse has regular co n tact not only with the Minister
himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry depar t
ments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official u n
der our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down.”
“As long as our friend Thicknesse is not disco v ered before he has converted the rest,” said Vold
e mort. “At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Mini
s try will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done wh
ile he tra v els.”
“We are at an advantage there, my Lord,” said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some po r
tion of approval. “We now have several people planted within the Depar t ment of Magical Transport. If Potter A
p parates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know imm
e diately.”
“He will not do either,” said Snape. “The O r der is eschewing any form of transport that is co
n trolled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust ev
e rything to do with the place.”
“All the better,” said Voldemort. “He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far.”
Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revol v ing body as he went on, “
I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is co n
cerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his tr i umphs.”
The company around the table watched Vold e mort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her e
x pression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry PotterТ s continued existence.
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