The Grants Artefacts

26 Albania

Albania.

Arun studied the wounds on her arms from the battle in America and wondered if they would ever heal properly. It was two weeks now, but the ghostly handprint of the dead who attacked her still hurt. The fire that had burned her shoulder left a scar too. She raised a cigarette up to her lips and took a long drag, listening to the birds chirping in the trees above her, when she exhaled her breath mingled with the smoke and sent a cloud up into the grey sky. On the ground, snow had settled. In one swift movement, all the birds took flight from the trees, spooked by something. Arun turned and studied her surroundings, A great snake slithered to her and curled around her feet. Arun flicked her cigarette away.

"Hello, Nagini."

The snake chuckled, "I don't do well in the cold Arundel."

"Then lead the way."

The snake turned and slithered through the undergrowth, downhill, along a stream and into a cave where it curled up next to the body of a huge brown bear. Arun bowed her head, went onto one knee and bit at her lip whilst she waited.

"Is it done?"

"It is."

"Those fools think they can use my name, my powers."

Arun stayed silent, her head still bowed.

"Who helped you?"

"The Malfoys, Snape, Fenrir Greyback. Dumbledore tried to manipulate me, the other Death Eaters did not side with the Americans when the Malfoys told them not to."

"And your sister?"

"She helped too."

"I am so weak, Arundel, so pathetic, so unable."

Arun looked up at him, "You're in a bear."

"I sit inside his hibernating brain providing warmth for my darling Nagini. If he were to wake I would be little more than a passenger. You see before you a shadow, a memory of greatness, nothing more."

"I can contact the Death Eaters, they could collect you, restore you."

"No."

Arun nodded, she knew it would be his answer.

"They are not my followers. They follow tradition and blood, and they confuse power with comfort. Those lazy, entitled bastards will fall away as soon as they see that they need not fear me any longer."

Arun shifted and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Fenrir is coming to Albania, I am helping him break into a prison to turn the prisoners into werewolves. Many of his people died in Egypt."

"Do not bring him to my doorstep. He must not know I have survived, not yet."

Arun nodded, "I need to go. I am supposed to be meeting him in a few hours," she got up, she turned to the exit and started to walk from the cave.

"Barty Crouch Jr."

She turned to look at her uncle. She studied him for a long while and she nodded. "Just Barty?" she asked.

"Yes," Voldemort told her. "And this time do not involve anybody else."