blood bound

chapter 25: Ambush and Pranks

Lucius ambushed them upon their return, his eyes wild as he tried to drag Severus off somewhere. The Malfoy Lord managing a lucky hit on Voldemort that made his vision grey almost to black. He vaguely heard an outraged snarl that he instinctively knew was Harry as he shook off the blow. There was a brief pang of regret for sending Narcissa and the Lestrange brothers off to their own errands before apparating but he didn't have much chance to dwell on it. Voldemort groggily dragged himself back to his feet, ignoring the shouting in favor of blindly sending Nagini into the fray and casting a general healing spell on himself. It took several seconds for his vision to clear only to find both of his mates pinned to the floor with Nagini hissing over them protectively as they were all circled by a group of at least eight Death Eaters, including Lucius.

"What is the meaning of this!" Voldemort snarled, keeping his wand free and glaring furiously at a crazy eyed Lucius.

"A coup, you and your mates will become nothing but playthings for those of us in charge," Lucius snarled back. "I will enjoy breaking Severus, just as I have no doubt that Bella and Greyback will enjoy breaking you and the Potter brat to there own purposes!"

"You will pay dearly for this!" Voldemort hissed, completely enraged.

Gathering his magic to him Voldemort sent out a shock wave that sent everyone tumbling and gave his mates the chance to fight back. Harry was up and on his feet mid-flight as he landed on top of one of the rebel Death Eaters, ripping the screaming man's throat out before they finished landing as he moved on to the next one. Severus landed lightly and showed exactly why he was a master duelist, engaging three separate Death Eaters at once. Voldemort took on Lucius, bringing him down in under a minute before moving on. By the time two minutes had passed they were surrounded by eight very dead idiots as Nagini circled them protectively while they tended to the injuries the short battle had caused.

"I wasn't expecting that," Harry muttered, glaring indignantly at the now very dead Lucius.

"That was rather the point of an ambush but yes, that was unexpected. Though I doubt that Lucius would have lasted much longer with how many warnings you've both given him since we've mated. I simply thank the gods that he never managed to get me alone," Severus pointed out as he carefully healed a long gash on Voldemort's wand arm.

"Bellatrix and Greyback will have to die if what Lucius said is any indication as to what they've been getting up to," Voldemort said, through gritted teeth as his arm was healed.

"Shite," Harry cursed as he reviewed the memory of their short battle only to realize that Lucius hadn't moved, sounded, or smelled like he should have. He realized this version of Lucius must have been under a form of Polyjuice potion.

"What is it?" Severus asked while he stood still as Voldemort healed a nasty cut to his cheek.

"That wasn't Lucius," Harry said in obvious frustration. "The bastard didn't move, sound, or even smell like Malfoy. I know we were watching them any way but something is really wrong with all of this. Lucius left the meeting just before everyone else and could have easily conned someone into pretending to be him but by the same token he is really not that blatantly stupid. Unless he's banking on the fact that it was so stupid that he wouldn't do it to make it work I don't see how he could be behind this attack. Another part of the problem is that the odds were uneven enough and we were caught so off guard that all of us went for the kill over the capture. We've got no one to question so we have no idea if we got all of them or if there are more idiots ready to kill us."