blood bound

chapter 2: new blood

Voldemort was not pleased, he had spent the last 12 hours writhing in agony as his soul stitched its self back together and his body became an older mirror of his youth. Whatever magic had done this had also hurt his beloved Nagini, the only bright spot being that she had survived the obvious removal of his Horcrux. He was definitely thankful that the familiar bond had held and helped keep alive his oldest friend.

"~Tom? What happened?~" Nagini hissed, painfully moving herself from her normal place near the fire towards her human.

"~Someone found a way to return most of my Horcruxes. I can still feel two pieces missing but the rest... Nagini have I truly been so... insane? Have my memories been altered?~" Voldemort asked quietly, fearful at what his memories were showing him.

"~It will be alright Tom. We can fix it and make it so others without caretakers do not have to deal with such poor caretakers as you had. Harming hatchlings like what happened to you and the dark stork man is abominable.~" Nagini assured him, forcing herself up off of the floor and onto the bed to cuddle with her human. "~Now, you will call the big eyed floppy eared creatures and get us food, then we will go looking for your two missing pieces and make them safe.~"

"~Thank you my dear. I will call Lucius and possibly Severus later to see what they know, perhaps they will have an explanation that we can use to keep our people safe.~" Voldemort whispered greatfully before calling for their breakfast, not yet knowing that things were about to get turned on their head. He never realized that Nagini was speaking of Severus Tobias Snape, Dungeon Bat and Potions Master when she referred to the dark stork man.

Back at Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall had finally managed to wrestle her temper under control. She was mortified to realize they had all forgotten to get the names of the students who had started this mess from Severus. Though the staff could always retrieve the miscreants later it would have been a fitting punishment for them to miss the holiday break after so recklessly endangering their own lives and the lives of others with magics they clearly didn't understand. Of course if they did actually know what they were doing and were attempting something malicious all of them would be expelled, providing the current Headmistress didn't try to intervene or simply have them sent to Azkaban.

Then there was the matter of what they had to bargain with if the staff was actually going to approach the Dark Lord with an alliance or at least a pact of neutrality. Too many of the things they heard about his campaign turned their stomachs and Dumbledore wasn't exactly free with the information he shared. Information on not only the war but his actions involving the students, too many times had the rest of the staff struggle to keep the students safe with the old coot blowing holes in their plans and freely letting danger walk the halls. Peeves flashed past, cackling, breaking McGonagall out of her mental tirade as she quickly set off after the fleeing specter.

"Peeves! A word!" She called after him, bringing the eternal prankster to a halt as he uncharacteristically politely waited for her.

"Professor Kitty?" Peeves asked, a wicked grin on his face as McGonagall finally caught up to him, snorting in wry amusement.

"There is a particular Professor who has taken a step to far and it might be prudent to remind her that one is either loyal to Hogwarts or the Ministry, not both in these troubling times. In fact I believe that her favored display plates should be put to a better use, perhaps with additional redecorating? Or that the sticking charms might tragically fail? Possibly while in front of her so that no one will get blamed for it?" Minerva suggested idly before her voice turned frigid. "There is also an old goat that needs to be kept out of the school. Both the goat and the pink toad have hurt students and put the rest at risk. It makes me wonder if I shouldn't ask Professor Sprout or Professor Snape for a little something extra to slip into their respective teas, something that might require a trip to St. Mungeos even."