( The Ministry of Magic )
"What are you doing here?" he hissed dangerously at the pathetic excuse of a man standing in front of him, who flinched at his words as he quickly looked around the bathroom.
He privately wondered how in the hell the man had managed to infiltrate the Ministry of all places! He cast several privacy spells on the bathroom door before looking down at the fearful man with hate-filled eyes. 'No wonder he's a rat, he's a damn coward, but why is he here of all places?' he mentally ranted as he looked down at Wormtail.
'Maybe I should just kill him now and take the credit. It would also remove another link to the diary, and the Blacks would publicly owe me one, but he would also lose the opportunity to get a hold of his fallen master's wand,' he thought as he looked at Peter, wondering what his fallen master ever saw in the rat as he discreetly prepared to use his wand.
Watching closely, Peter looked around carefully before answering, "I need advice, Lucius," Peter stuttered, looking up at him.
He considered the plea for assistance. "Make it quick, I need to get back to my meeting with the Minister," whilst still deciding whether to kill the man right now. The Minister would surely reward him with a new title, but the Bones bitch wouldn't buy it and would certainly investigate why Peter was even here in the first place. Then he wouldn't get his fallen master's wand either from Peter—what a prize that would be! It would be the centerpiece of his Dark Arts collection as he thought back on the deal they made months earlier after the news broke out of Sirius' false imprisonment.
Peter would smuggle the enchanted diary into Hogwarts and kill Potter and hand over the Dark Lord's precious wand in exchange for gold, a lot of gold, so that he could escape overseas and disappear for good before the Aurors finally found him, or the bounty hunters that the new Lord Black had hired. 'No, I'll kill him another time, maybe I could even get the bounty myself,' he mentally concluded.
"I delivered the diary as you instructed, passed it off to the Weasley girl as I know you hated the family," Peter began, offering a small smile. "But I can't find a way to kill Potter; he's too well protected," the man explained, his excuses falling off his tongue with ease.
"Have you tried poisoning him?" he enquired, wondering if the fallen Gryffindor had used one of his rather favorite tools for killing his enemies.
"It would never work," Peter stated, shaking his head. "The goblets are enchanted."
"Yes, I know," he interrupted the rat man whilst already coming up with a makeshift plan to play to Peter's strengths, which clearly weren't fighting, but instead focused on the man's stealth and infiltration skills. "You don't poison the goblets used by the school, nor do you do it yourself," he stated, as Peter listened with great interest before explaining further. "You know the Imperius Curse, don't you?" The balding wizard nodded in answer to that question.
"You cast it on a student, someone that you can control easily, like another second year, and then you have them poison him for you whilst you escape," Peter nodded in understanding.
"Do it this way, use the Curse on a first-year or second-year, I don't care really," Lucius stated, before adding, "Actually, maybe a muggleborn, if you can," he lectured, seeing a means to both discredit muggleborns further and undermine the resident Headmaster which furthered his own plans and goals.
"Then provide them with some poisoned chocolates or sweets, depending on what Mr. Potter likes," he explained as Peter caught on.
"Excellent idea," Peter stated, clearly liking this idea. "Valentine's Day is in a couple of months. It will also give me time to prepare, and no one will expect the chocolates are poisoned if given to him by a girl with a silly crush." The balding wizard spoke with a smile forming as the animagus thought over the idea.
'I never thought of that,' he mentally admitted, taken by surprise at the Gryffindor's modified plan; it was positively cunning, almost Slytherin, but he didn't show this. 'I better get Cissa something good this year.' "Yes, that might work," he gave his approval to the plan, "But remember the Potter family heir ring will have enchantments in place to detect most common poisons," pointing out the possible weakness in the plan. "But a couple of the rarer ones might work, what the ring hasn't been enchanted to detect," he offered.
"Or you could just bewitch them to drive an enchanted poisoned dagger into his back, or even a regular knife at the dinner table. I admit it's not as discreet," Wormtail nodded at that, "but it certainly sends a message. Remember, if you take that route, poison and curse the blade beforehand. If you have problems getting one, I can always provide you one for a small fee."
Composing himself as he made to leave the bathroom before he was missed, he looked over his shoulder at the man. "Maybe bewitch a friend of his if that is the case, it would be easier and the deed could be done in his dorm rooms away from the public eye, giving you more time to flee," he said, getting another nod in understanding. "Then have the person you Imperiused kill themselves to buy you more time to make your escape," he unleashed a sinister smile at this; he really did love the planning of a good murder plot.
"Thank you, Lucius," the man nodded. "Happy Christmas," Peter said lowly.
"Just remember the deal," he stated before walking back to the Minister's Office, forgoing using the toilet.
"Ah, there you are, Lucius, we thought you got lost," the Minister said good-naturedly as he gulped down some more red wine.
"I saw a business contact on the way back. I just wanted to pass on my wishes for a wonderful Christmas, Minister," he offered, whilst taking a bite of a mince pie.
"Ah, got any plans for Christmas?" Madam Umbridge enquired from her seat at her own master's side.
"Nothing significant, I recently bought another minor artifact for my collection," he offered as he gracefully lowered himself back into his seat, wondering why in the hell she wore that hideous pink outfit.
"Good deal?" the Minister enquired.
Considering the question for a second, "Yes, it's worth five times what the seller is asking for it," he explained, loving the way their eyes bugged out in shock. "But the seller doesn't know that, he's somewhat new to the trade and needs the money quickly, something I'm more than willing to take advantage of."
"That's good," Fudge quickly agreed, before saying in a lower tone, "But I hope it's nothing illegal. Madam Bones is still asking for that search warrant to inspect your home for some of your rarer pieces," referring discreetly to his Dark Arts collection.
"I'm sure you can keep her busy, Minister, you are such a resourceful man," Lucius carefully replied, stroking the man's ego with practiced ease as he considered once again moving his precious Dark Arts collection somewhere else, rather than keeping it in his manor.
...
Popping through the floo to Rita's apartment, he had plans to immediately start implementing his newest scheme, which had been slowly forming in the back of his mind ever since he had first discovered Sirius' set of charmed one-way mirrors. These mirrors had allowed his godfather to spy on girls during his school days. It was a rather ingenious plan, even if he said so himself. The only thing keeping him from implementing it was the knowledge of how the magic actually worked together.
This was no longer a problem though, all thanks to Sirius' and Remus' wonderful Christmas present—a book containing all the spells and pranks the Marauders had ever created or performed while in school in furtherance of a prank. Naturally, he expected the motivation behind the gift was to 'encourage' the Marauder in him, but he had far bigger and grander plans for the book.
Unfortunately, the book lacked the necessary information to create another Marauders' Map, mainly due to the Marauders themselves no longer knowing how they did it, as its creation was a team effort between the four of them spanning a good deal of time and many failed efforts before they finally succeeded.
Oh well, he would have still gone after the original map anyway, since he didn't like the idea of someone being able to track him in real-time around the school. There was also the fact that Pettigrew knew about it and, depending on who had it currently, if Pettigrew got a hold of it he would be able to track Harry throughout the school just waiting for the perfect time to ambush him again. Of course, Harry could use it too, to watch for the rat as well as help him get around the school during the evening undetected.
His idea was simple and rather elegant in its design, he thought. He then heard Rita's footsteps from above. "I'll be down in a minute!" she cried from above, as he settled down on the sofa.
Sirius and his father had been typical Gryffindors when they had created the mirrors to perv on their female year-mates, too blinded by their teenage hormones to see how the simple one-way mirrors could be put to a wider use, which any true Slytherin would have noticed straight away.
Mirrors were everywhere in the world, both muggle and magical, and everyone liked seeing their reflections. They were all over houses, offices, businesses, bathrooms, and were even carried by people in their day-to-day lives. So why couldn't he set up a network of charmed mirrors to spy and gather information?
...
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