Riding a Nightmare

Dust to Dust

Last Time:

It was hard to stay hopeful when Trelawney pointed her wand straight at Loretta ...

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Ms. Zabini stepped into the Malfoy manor and quickly went up to the lab. Of course, she knew better than to interrupt while a brew was going on so she skimmed the two books as she waited. Something in the books made her quietly turn and run back down the stairs.

"Where are they? I doubt they're asleep." The witch muttered to herself.

"Where's who? I can help." Sirius said as he leapt up from the chair he was impatiently fidgeting on.

Ms. Zabini shot him a sharp look, "Any good at advanced runes?"

Sirius winced, "Um no, but I can-"

"Tell me where your cousin is." Ms. Zabini ordered.

"Narcissa?" Sirius exclaimed and was going to ask what she could do that he couldn't, but the feeling of the maid skirt brushing his skin stop his argumentative reflex. "Narcissa and Lucius were cooking-"

There was no time to waste on anything but the main goal. The witch didn't even wait for Sirius to finish speaking before hurrying to the kitchen. That was where she found the Malfoy pair, who also seemed to be keeping tabs on the group of Death Eaters that were watching Gellert's prison. After all, one of the Death Eaters assigned to that group was giving them a report.

"The team of military squibs has joined ours." The Death Eater said and pulled out a listening device, similar to the one Loretta has, as proof. "We already noticed something is off. The runes are still basic prison runes and very strong, but the muggle equipment has picked up voices in the castle where we can't see. According to his records, you were supposed to be imprisoned without any living portraits or artifacts and there are no ghosts so there really should be no voices. No one came or left and another sound picked up implies a floo was installed. We're waiting on the person assigned to get his food to know for sure."

Lucius frowned, "How would a floo get installed?" He pondered to himself. "That's great work. Keep an eye out for anything." He said and gave the Death Eater a bag of meals to take back for everyone.

As the Death Eater left Narcissa saw Ms. Zabini, "Is everything ok-" All she had to see was the picture in the book that Ma. Zabini flashed her to understand. "I'll be back soon." She said and the witches left Lucius to the cooking.

Both witches went to the lab and waited. Only when a Death Eater came out to run a quick errand did they risk going in. Severus was seen reading the first book they found.

"Severus, here are the last two books." Ms. Zabini said and without a word Severus stood up and took the books that were handed to him. "There's some runes involved so Narcissa and I plan to start that."

"Yes. The runes act like a beacon to bring the horcruxes out." Severus commented as he took some parchment and used a spell to duplicate the necessary information.

Narcissa took the copies, "The runes require blood so let's do this in the cellar. Bella has yet to clean up."

Ms. Zabini cringed, "It better not smell too badly." She huffed, making it clear that her only concern was for her nose, not what she might see.

Time ticked by. Lucius held the fort and continued cooking to keep himself awake. Narcissa and Ms. Zabini were constructing a large bloody rune sequence in the cellar. Severus was diligently brewing and carefully studying the books.

On the other hand, Sirius fell asleep on the couch ... That's where Remus, Tom, Bellatrix and her two captives found him ...

Bellatrix snorted when she spotted her cousin snoozing peacefully hours later, "Wish I could sleep like that with all this shit going on." She turned and dragged Doge and Moody towards the cellar. "Let me show you your rooms! Then we can chat."