"Where did you take Bellatrix?"
Harry smiled and shrugged. "You should know by now that nobody takes Bellatrix anywhere."
"You know what I meant!" Rodolphus snarled as he glared at Harry's wand. "You treacherous blood traitor!"
Harry arched an eyebrow. "That was redundant."
Snarling, Rodolphus jerked his wand arm and suddenly, he had another wand in his hand-a spare, apparently. Reflexively, Harry cast a banishing spell which sent Lestrange flying through the air and into a pile of rubble. Not wanting to risk further confrontation and realizing that Malfoy Manor had already been destroyed once, Harry unleashed fiendfyre in the general direction he had banished Rodolphus. He then fled.
Within moments, he had escaped beyond the dark wards that the Death Eaters had apparently erected. Feeling that he was now in the clear to apparate, Harry turned back to glance at the light and shadows caused by his fiendfyre. He popped away and found himself in London. A few more pops around the country and he was within walking distance of his and Bellatrix's new property in Manchester.
.....
Luckily for Rodolphus Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and all other Death Eaters vaguely associated with them, Voldemort was very mellow and pensive when Rodolphus was required to report on the fact that the Malfoy floor safe had been looted by Harry Ashworth. Or rather, Voldemort was doing his best to maintain an outward appearance of being calm. The truth was that his face and hands were still in pain from the burns Romulus Malfoy had inflicted. Consequently, showing emotion was still a costly exercise. Voldemort's new strategy for coping with the pain in the presence of his followers was to stand in the shadows near a darkened window. That way, he could pace around, give a sense of strength, and still hide his face.
"And so, I drew my spare wand on him. His reaction was fiendfyre," Rodolphus said. He then concluded his tale with an explanation of how he had struggled to extinguish the fiendfyre and then with an account of how the safe had been opened and empty.
"Fiendfyre," Voldemort repeated quietly. "Mr. Ashworth does seem to have an affinity for fire, doesn't he?"
"Yes," Rodolphus agreed, even though he didn't have a clue what would prompt Voldemort to say that.
"I wasn't talking to you," Voldemort said shortly.
Rodolphus winced, but remained silent.
"I want the efforts to locate and apprehend Ashworth doubled," Voldemort declared. "It is clear to me that he has stolen the Malfoy gold and many of the Malfoy treasures. Other facts suggest that he has meddled with the affairs of the Black family-or intends to, anyway. If he is not neutralized soon, he will become a significant liability to our cause.
Chapter 24
Harry blinked as he entered the lodgings he and Bellatrix now shared. Compared to the stormy, overcast sky outside, the inside of the apartment was very bright. Over the days since Harry and Bellatrix had bought the place, Bellatrix had busied herself with furnishing it. Part of that furnishing included a lot of stand lamps.
For the first time, Harry realized that despite Bellatrix having made her furnishing purchases at magical stores with only one exception, the main living room area could pass as a Muggle residence with few problems. The exception was a television set. Apparently she had enjoyed watching the telly while they had been cooped up in the hotel room.
Proceeding through the living area and passing the kitchen and dining area that sat across from each other behind the living room, Harry made his way into center hallway. His bedroom was on the left and overlooked the street outside. He stripped off his shirt and winced as a jolt of pain reminded him of the cutting hex with which Lestrange had hit him.
He moved back into the hallway and down to the apartment's only bathroom. Luckily, Bellatrix wasn't holed up in it as she often seemed to be. He was examining his still-bleeding wound in the mirror when footsteps heralded Bellatrix's descent from the upper floor of their residence. Apparently, she had heard his arrival and was coming down to see how he had fared.
She appeared at the bathroom door, which Harry had left open, and arched her eyebrow at the wound. "Looks like you could have used some skilled assistance during your little outing."
Harry shrugged as he rummaged around in the medicine cabinet for something to clean and patch it up. "I ran into Rodolphus Lestrange."
"Did you kill him?"
"It's possible, I suppose," Harry said. "I banished him and then sent a wave of fiendfyre after him."
"The fiendfyre is admirable, Harry, but a killing curse would have been more efficient and guaranteed."
"Yeah, whatever," Harry said, getting ready to clean the wound.
Bellatrix imitated Harry's shrug as Harry cleaned the cut from Rodolphus. The cleaning caused the wound to reopen and begin trickling blood again.
"It's a war, Harry. You're going to have to get used to killing people." Her eyes fell on the blood oozing out of the wound. "Let's not patch that up quite yet," she said. "I was going to need a blood sample from you anyway. We may as well collect that now." She disappeared back up to the upper floor, leaving Harry standing in front of the mirror, prepared to patch up the wound with a few band aids.
In a moment, she had returned with a small vial. "Fill it up," she directed.
"What are you going to do with my blood?" Harry asked suspiciously.
....
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