By breakfast the following morning, the news that Draco Malfoy had been taken home by his parents was all over the castle. Of course, the rumour mill greatly embellished upon the truth, with many students thoroughly convinced that Harry Potter had personally expelled his schoolyard nemesis.
"Are you planning on telling them the truth?" asked Hannah as they ate breakfast.
Harry looked over to the Slytherin table, where more than a few students kept stealing fearful glances towards him.
"At dinner," he replied finally "I've put up with enough crap from that house over the years. Let them stew in their worry for a couple of hours."
Susan laughed as Hannah shook her head and went back to her scrambled eggs.
Lord Voldemort was sitting upon a throne-like chair in the Grand Hall of Malfoy Manor. In front of him, Lucius Malfoy was hunched over on the floor and trembling, having just suffered the effects of the cruciatus curse.
Voldemort was a firm believer in not killing the messenger, but that didn't mean he didn't vent his frustrations upon the bringer of bad news.
The Malfoy whelp losing his position of prefect was hardly of any concern to Lord Voldemort. Of course, having the son of one of his inner circle of Death Eaters hold a position such as prefect at Hogwarts did have its advantages, but in the grand scheme of things those advantages were miniscule and therefore largely inconsequential.
No, the bad news that Lucius had brought was that Severus Snape had been demoted from his position as Head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts.
Voldemort had, of course, been aware that the Ministry was currently spear-heading a movement to increase standards at Hogwarts and for the most part the news has pleased him. He knew of many of Dumbledore's more recent recruits and how most of them would not stand up in the face of even the slightest bit of scrutiny, something which could only backfire upon Dumbledore himself.
However, Snape losing favour was an unprecedented blow to his own forces. As their spy within the castle, any sign of wrongdoing had the potential of robbing Snape, and thus Lord Voldemort, of vital information. People would be far more wary around the man from now on.
The situation was, without a doubt, regretful, but still yet salvageable. Snape was still in the castle he was still teaching, he still had Dumbledore's ear and he still had access to Potter, even if it was limited.
Of course, things could currently go one way or the other. Snape was on the ropes, and there were a lot of people awaiting his fall.
Voldemort would have to summon Snape soon, and remind him as to just how important it was that he remained within the castle walls.
A cruciatus curse or two ought to do the trick.
At the moment he had no major plans, other than to mostly sit back and wait. He knew full well that the Ministry was working very hard on the task of toppling the great Albus Dumbledore from his pedestal of greatness, and once Dumbledore fell his followers were sure to follow.
Of course, with the Ministry completely denying the fact that he, Lord Voldemort, had returned to power, that would be the perfect time for him to put in a very public appearance.
Yes, he rather liked that plan – allow the Ministry to topple Dumbledore, and then he would come in and topple the Ministry. So long as he kept a check on his spies within the Ministry, toppling that institution should be relatively simple, especially compared to his previous attempts during the last war. Then there had been many Aurors, and their department was well funded. Now, his Ministry sources could reveal, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was under-staffed, ill-equipped and squeezed for finances.
In the meantime, however, Voldemort was free to focus his efforts onto one particular plan that he did have going, which was the difficult task of getting into the Department of Mysteries and locating that blasted prophecy, something which he was certain he had not heard in full previously. Once he had his hands on that, he was certain that he would be able to destroy the last obstacle in his way to complete power – Harry Potter.
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