Eyes burnt with glee. He had found it. He was sure this time. It was exactly as his Lord had described. The long crimson bleed of a handle, satin bound with gold ribbons wrapped tightly around the hilt. The blade had a pronounced bend in the edge of it, emphasizing a certain far Eastern quality about this particular sword. And there, in the dimly illuminated, dusty metal, near the tip, was the Latin inscriptions that had plagued his mind the whole way to his goal.

It hadn’t been an easy task to get into Hogwarts; Rodolphus had never fully appreciated the magical guard around the school, but that night he had been lucky. He had slipped and slid across darkened passages, straining his memory back to his days at school, and the secret hideaways which he had used himself for reasons not to be spoken of. There had been one frightening moment where Rodolphus could have sworn he heard a small group of boys whispering as they walked down the corridor, but as he sunk into the shadows that the night sky had blessed him with, he found that no human passed by at all. He stepped back out into the space of the hallway and stared, a single eyebrow quirked, at the direction of the voices and only when they had faded completely did he turn on his heel and silently walk away.

Rodolphus had reached the armoury, his eyes literally watering with happiness. His gaze remained upon the lit sign which was printed above the frame and threw himself against the large dark wooden door which did not permit him entry. Rodolphus growled with anger and magic completely vanished from his mind, started to pummel the door with much enthusiasm. Finally, he calmed himself, smiled slightly, and pulled his wand out of his pocket, while pushing his black hair from his eyes. It only took a simple unlocking charm for him to get in, and when he did step into the room, his satisfied face bloomed into a full fledged relished grin.

Now it was time to decide exactly how to get the sword from its glass case without taking the chance that some weird alarm would set off and alert the rest of the school of his presence. It was just what Dumbledore would do, Rodolphus thought scathingly. Always had to make a song and dance out of everything he did. Nothing was perfect unless it was unique or new, or original in a sickly pathetic way. ‘Too right, too, old man.’ Rodolphus murmured as he circled the stand which the case was placed on. ‘You should fear the old fashioned, the old ways, even you know they are right… they are correct,’ the young man continued to speak to himself as he started tapping the glass with his wand.

It seemed tapping the wand and muttering numerous incantations had had no effect whatsoever on the glass case, and this didn’t surprise him in the least. ‘You knew I’d be here for it.’ He hissed as he backed off for a second, gaining a view of the whole room from where he stood. His usual heightened sense of awareness had been dimmed because of his concentration on this crystal box but he wasn’t so involved that he had become ignorant to other sounds around him. Rodolphus was like a dog when it came to smell and hearing.

He pushed his hands into his pockets and, his fingers still grasped on the long hard strip of wood in his hand, let his eyes flicker to over to another large casing full of glittering gold shields, where he thought, possibly, someone could have been standing, but to his slight relief, there was no one there. Rodolphus stood, looking rather casual, but all the same ridged and silent, his eyes never moving or flickering from the space where he swore a being had been.

He stood there for a long moment, and during his time he heard other noises about the castle; like the hooting of owls delivering their post, the distant echo of truants wandering around the castle… Rodolphus shook himself and moved back to the case, ‘Got ghosts on me now, Dumbledore.’

He had a husky, precise voice, but one had to admit his pronounced slant on some of his words, probably owing to him wandering around the streets of London since he was a boy. Probably. Or maybe he made himself sound like this to appear more grizzled and worn than he actually was; Rodolphus was only twenty-one years old after all. It had always seemed sense to him to appear as the hard one of the group, since Lucius liked to appear as the brains; even though Rodolphus knew he had none. ‘He’s just pompous, and slightly more articulate than I am.’ He purred to himself as he ran a long fingered hand across the side of the case. ‘But we know who will be rewarded in the end.’ A mysterious change had overrun the young man’s handsome face; something quite apart from the satisfied smirk or angry scowl that mostly adorned his features. It was a wide, wicked grin; it was illumination, an epiphany, ecstasy at the thought of his last words.

And then the creek. Rodolphus didn’t need to think, his wand did of its own accord. The door slammed shut, encasing himself and someone else in the room. Rodolphus’ eyes adjusted to the sight of a girl. He couldn’t quite decide what surprised him more, the fact that someone would have the audacity to watch him in his private time or that it was a girl that chose to take her life in her hands, well, she wasn’t to know, he supposed. He eyed the girls’ wand and then sipped in her body and other features of which he found interesting. Rodolphus wasn’t at all scared of her, he had no reason to be and so he walked forward towards her, his wand at his side. ‘What you gunna’ do with that? Hm?’ he purred to her as he came to a short breadth away from the wand. He smiled softly. ‘Well… you’re beautiful aren’t you, Blondie.’ It was hardly a question. ‘Tell me, what are you doing in the armoury this late? Forgive me, but I was expecting… no one…’ he paused and grinned wickedly, in the jittering light from the torches on the walls his eyes seemed to blaze with malice, ‘Or, perhaps more of a challenge than this…’ Rodolphus winked at her. It was a game to him, he was merely toying with her. Because he liked it.

Rodolphus watched her advance on him with interest. His senses buzzed excitably; he certainly hadn’t expected this to happen on his little excursion to his old school. It seemed that the girl students of Hogwarts had become just as valiant and pathetic as the boys.

‘Oh dear,’ he said huskily, raising an eyebrow, ‘I’m rather attached to my parts. Can’t we sort out some kind of agreement? I misjudged you, you’re more of a challenge after all, aren’t you…’

Rodolphus’ eyes scanned the girl for a few more well chosen moments. He noted her rather grown up face, mature features such as her mouth, which she seemed to know how to use rather well and that amused him greatly; there was nothing better than a young girl who spoke like a woman. But what caught his imagination the most was the way her eyes burned with defiance against this new threat to her. The way she seemed to be fighting the temptation to run, and yet she would probably pursue him if he decided to scarper, which he wouldn’t; one because he wasn’t stupid, and two because he had no problem with this girl knowing him to be here. She may have been brave, but he was unhinged, and the two didn’t go together. You can never make a brave move against something so fluid, so unimaginably diverse. Rodolphus made mistakes, it was true, but he never made the same mistake twice. Talking to a Hogwarts student had never before gotten him into more trouble than it was worth, so he took some time out to play with his little blonde bird.

He reached out and before taking the girls loose tie in his hand; he paused and held his hand up innocently, a small smile placed on his face. He thought clear thoughts, and purely wondered whether he was correct in his guess that this student was Gryffindor. Before he let the girl make another move, he picked up the end of her red striped tie, brushing her blouse as he did so. ‘I thought so, y’know… I knew you’d be a Gryffindor. They say they’re brave but,’ he shook his head, chuckling to himself, ‘I think they just blur the line between bravery and stupidity...really.’ Rodolphus’ unblinking eyes were wide once more as he focused back on the girl’s face, letting the tie slip from his fingertips and making his free hand into a fist by his side.

He raised his eyebrows at her obvious distaste at even the talk of the Snake house, Slytherin. ‘How ‘d you come to that assessment, Blondie?’ he grinned down at her as she dug her wand harder into his chest. ‘I mean I know they say the best looking ones come from Slytherin, but really…‘ his face then twisted into a suspicious scowl. ‘Wait, Gryffindor is the muddy bloody house, am I right? Don’t tell me you’re of the orientation yourself.’ Rodolphus pushed the wand away from his chest with a single finger and crossed his arms, squinting at the girl. ‘I don’t really care.’ He lied. ‘You’ll end up the same way tonight whatever the answer.’ He smiled soothingly completely contrasting with his sick words. Then Rodolphus made a fast movement, snatching the Gryffindor’s thin wrist in his powerful hand and twisted her around, pushing her arm up her back painfully. Now both of them faced the glass case. Rodolphus tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and whispered sweetly, ‘We’ll drop the wand now, yes? We’re not barbarians after all… we can have a nice little chat without weapons?’

He relished the sharp intake of breath as he grasped the girl and pushed her forward so she met the glass case. Rodolphus looked up for a moment, frozen in wonder that this may have had some undesired effect on the box or its contents, but it hadn’t; he turned his attention back to she who struggled in his arms. She slowly stopped almost to let a shiver which even he felt pass through, and it made the small smirk he had baring on his lips crack into a wide, sickly sweet grin.

This Gryffindor’s words came as a slight surprise. He had been expecting some plead of innocence and naivety, something along the lines of what he had heard many times before; Oh god, I’m sorry, just… let me go? Just thinking of the words excited him, but then again, these new words, words of such competitiveness he had not heard from anyone other than his wife were so strange coming from a girl he was sure had just shivered in fear. Yet again, she was battling conflicting emotions and choices, and Rodolphus was all the while spectating like a bird of prey, never quite willing to succumb to relieving her from the position she was in.

Rodolphus made a clicking noise with his tongue and then, feeling her hand twitch he smiled and pulled away from her, but not before snatching her arm back and throwing her aside. His eyes then focused back on the glass case directly in front of him while he stooped and picked up the girl’s wand which he promptly began twirling around his fingers. He tilted his head, frowning in deep thought. He almost forgot that there was someone else in the room so turned and merely stood for a while, pondering the girl once more. ‘I do hope no one knows you’re ‘ere.’ he muttered, his gaze travelling down her body. ‘It’d be a shame if someone came looking for you while you’re ‘ere with me, hm?’ Rodolphus stepped back and crossed his arms, still smiling at her, and then turned and walked around the back of the glass case, pushing his dark hair off of his forehead.

He felt in a strange mood; it was half worried about the end development of his situation, and then the excitement at actually finding the artifact that the Dark Lord had mentioned and then there was this girl, this hostage he had for his own enjoyment. He would obviously not murder her. He would be a fool to do so, just imagine the old git upstairs when he found out one of his students had been killed in such a circumstance… firstly it would mean worldwide scandal – and the Lord hates scandal – and then he would barricade the bloody doors up, probably. Well, perhaps not to the extreme but it would make it a damn bother to get in to the school again and what with all the Lord’s pieces hidden away there… No, he would not do it. But he would indulge himself in a bit of light torture if he felt in the mood. That was the beauty of Memory Charms.

Then something else needled its way into his mind; the fact he had no idea how to get the sword out of its glass prison.

He looked up, almost hopelessly at the girl across the room and wondered… perhaps she was a clever one… those know-it-alls who used their pompous knowledge to great effect. Maybe he could make use of her after all.

‘What’s your name, Blondie?’