"Stalys, the Lord summons you."
Lucius took a harsh breath before forcing himself to say these words. He was truly afraid now that this brain-damaged person would implicate him.
But he also had to admire this family—because of that performance in front of everyone, as long as Bella couldn't produce concrete evidence, their family would be fine.
So many people... As long as the Lord didn't want those newly joined families to develop second thoughts, there wouldn't be further casualties among the freshly purged Death Eaters.
Even if she had minor flaws.
Walking down the corridor, seeing Lys's damaged shirt and cloak barely covering her body, Lucius pulled a cloak off a passing wizard and threw it over Lys's head as she kept looking back.
He knew what she was looking at.
"Someone will watch your parents. I hope you truly haven't made any betraying moves."
Lys impatiently pulled off the cloak, her hair disheveled and voice hoarse as she complained: "I haven't, I haven't! Do you think I have that kind of nerve?!"
As if anyone would admit it, Lys thought in her muddled confusion.
Lucius turned back expressionlessly and continued leading the way. Done for—her mind wasn't clear...
Every previous time she'd seen the Lord while lucid, she'd been trembling with fear. This time she actually had the mood to fiddle with her sleeves...
Lys wasn't really playing with her sleeves though. The fracture in her left arm had lost its brace's support and was swelling from movement. The originally loose sleeve was now tightly constricting the swollen area, extremely uncomfortable.
Just before reaching the Dark Lord's room, Lys finally tore off the button. Clutching the forcibly removed button, she sighed in relief before entering the room with Lucius.
Snape was also inside, apparently reporting something related to Hogwarts being unable to recruit staff.
Seeing the arrivals, the Dark Lord slightly raised half his palm to pause the report.
Looking at the disheveled girl before him, the Dark Lord was actually quite certain that given her degree of protecting that useless family affection, she would never betray the Death Eater faction that controlled the Ministry of Magic and defined her father's status—at least not before her father could safely leave the country.
But...
He looked Lys up and down and sneered:
"Look at this foolish state of my Death Eaters. If old Thomas hadn't died, I would definitely punish him properly, but now..."
He raised his wand with some regret and continued: "Lucius, I believe I said she should stay by your side to handle affairs. So explain what happened with the bar and St. Mungo's."
Lucius bowed his head and began explaining. Last time Dumbledore appeared at the Black Bar, Bellatrix hadn't shown any consideration for him being her sister's husband and had thoroughly interrogated him.
That time he really thought Bellatrix was having another fit of madness—he genuinely felt that madwoman was trying to get him killed!
Naturally, he seized every moment to investigate the matter thoroughly: that old fox Dumbledore had used his personal connections and past grievances to contact two major German families to pressure the Karkaroff family, causing the cooperation to be obstructed.
Since the wizard delivering information hadn't come through official channels, they'd randomly found an underground bar to meet with Dumbledore.
He was just unlucky...
As for the St. Mungo's incident, Lucius wasn't very clear. He glanced at Lys but didn't dare speak carelessly.
At this moment, Snape, standing to the side, spoke: "Lord, please allow me to interject. Stalys Black, she..."
He seemed to briefly choose his words: "Her mind was never very sound to begin with. Since your last Cruciatus Curse, she's suffered considerable aftereffects. She mentioned going to St. Mungo's to check her brain—that was probably the incident."
The Dark Lord expressed no opinion on this, merely looking at Lys with some amusement.
He could see her mind indeed had serious problems.
But he didn't quite agree with Snape's words. He felt this seemingly foolish person actually possessed a kind of stupid wisdom.
Never competing with the strong, never fighting fate—despite such a miserable appearance, she could still stand before him and have Lucius and Snape speak in her defense, even if only ambiguously.
Her abilities weren't weak, just her luck was poor. Her birth family, growing environment—she always seemed to do foolish things, yet brought one enemy after another to their deaths.
Sometimes, compared to those greedy fools under his command, she was even a bit smarter.
The Dark Lord found it interesting... and somewhat regrettable. This time she was completely useless...
If her mind hadn't developed such serious problems, he would have cultivated her.
A young person without entangled interests.
A young person without entangled interests who was outstanding.
A young person without entangled interests, who knew when to yield, and was outstanding.
His playful, probing gaze nearly caused Lys's already muddled Occlumency to collapse directly, but fortunately at this moment, the Dark Lord received news that Mr. Menierquaid of the Karkaroff family hoped to meet about their previous cooperation.
Only then did the Dark Lord withdraw his slightly wistful gaze and stand up. "Lucius, keep her out of public view in the future."
Though he evaluated her thus, this foolish appearance was simply too embarrassing.
She'd never had much of a brain to begin with, and his Cruciatus Curse had made her even more addled...
He didn't know that if he'd stared at Lys just a moment longer, he would have discovered just how audaciously bold the girl before him truly was—someone who dared spy on his secrets. Unfortunately, he didn't.
Lucius agreed and inwardly marveled again at Stalys's incredible luck, especially given the Lord's unpredictable moods lately.
It just happened that today the Lord was in a decent mood due to the smooth progress with German cooperation. Otherwise, when she'd opened her mouth to question the Lord's orders to Bella, she might already be dead.
And "keep her out of public view"...
Lucius glanced at his junior still clutching a button.
She'd finally escaped, hadn't she?
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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