Dabbling With The Dark

Chapter 23

Saturday Evening

Though he was tired, he felt better than he had in a long time. Friday during lunch Dumbledore stopped him to say that the old man had cleared his schedule for that night and the next day to help him with the wards on the Shrieking Shack. He didn't like when Voldemort said that the portal between the upstairs bedroom closet door and Voldemort's chambers would need to be closed while Dumbledore was there, but he knew it was necessary. It made him work twice as hard Friday night to make sure that no residual magic was present in the shack and that entire morning and afternoon to get the wards up, wards that Dumbledore was even impressed with given how intricate they were. By four-thirty, the wards were up and Dumbledore left him saying to be back at the castle by nightfall. And once the old man was gone, he felt a hundred times better once the portal between the two bedrooms was back in place. Voldemort and the Death Eaters didn't stay with him for long having a mission Voldemort wanted done, but that was all right. He could go back anytime he wanted to without having to worry about Dumbledore or anyone else following him there and that was worth every knut he'd paid for the place.

Standing at the table in Voldemort's chambers, he looked over his three pages of notes again. There were seven books spread out to go along with the three pages and another set of four pages that went along with different books he'd already re-shelved. Finally, there were two items resting in boxes lined with black velvet: a locket with a snake emblem and a chalice, both in brilliantly shiny gold. Still looking over the pages, he didn't turn when the door opened and more than one set of footsteps entered the room.

"How'd things go at the at the Thayor's Estate?" he asked. Voldemort chuckled moving closer to him and he did, too. "I take it that means you got those rings that you were after," he said.

"Yes," Voldemort replied and stopped behind him. "Is that the second set?"

"Yes," he replied. "Now I just have to charm them so they look thousands of years old before I curse the shit out of them to look like Horcruxes," he replied still looking at the papers in front of him.

"Those are the fakes then?" Bellatrix asked leaning over the table and looking at the items in their boxes.

"Why are you even bothering anymore?" Rosier asked. "Term is almost over, you own your own home a doorway away, and you'll no doubt be here most of the summer."

"I'm bothering," he replied holding up the second set of curses he planned to use on one of the items still looking over the first and Voldemort took them to look them over, "because one, your Dark Lord told me to, and secondly, because I made a bet with Snape that I'd bring all three of them in before the end of term. When I do he owes me an O instead of me having to clean and pack away his potions classroom for him. Since final exams start on the sixteenth of June I'm going to give Dumbledore one this weekend and the other three weeks from now. By then the rest of the grades will be in the books and that the son of a Muggle will have to give me an O on my final exam to keep our bet. With the rest of my grades this term, he'll be forced to give me an O for the term and it'll piss him off forever that he had to." Laughter rang out in the room from everyone and he smiled before turning around and looking at Voldemort. "So things went well today?" he asked again.

"Yes," Voldemort replied. "Your information on the werewolf still resting due to the full moon a few days ago, his Auror wife tending to him, and several other Order members being away on an assignment for Dumbledore left their ranks shorthanded in stopping me from obtaining the items. How did you come across the information regarding the other Order members?"