RP: I Believe It Is My Move Again
Date: 1 September 2006 Characters: Rodolphus Location: Lestrange Manor, Upper Slaughter Private/Public: Private Rating: PG Warnings: None Summary: Rodolphus makes the next move in his chess game - the rook
Rodolphus stood in the middle of the entry foyer of Lestrange Manor and took several deep breaths. Once he started this, he wouldn’t be able to stop and he needed to get it done quickly. There were still watchers outside the village and they were going to notice when the Fidelius came down. He intended to take that one down last but he had to anticipate that any watchers would move quickly once they realised what had happened.
He raised his wand and checked the wards magically one last time. Fenrir and Natasha had moved themselves and the last of the werewolves still staying in Upper Slaughter out and into Five Ashes. The vampires had left several nights ago either to Five Ashes as well or to a place of their choosing. The wards were now telling him that no one had crossed or tested them within the last six hours. Good. That would make things easier.
He drew in one last deep breath to prepare himself and began. The task wasn’t difficult. It was easier to remove wards than to put them up but it was lengthy as he and Rabastan had placed a large number of them around the village. The only advantage he got was the renewal of his magical energy as the wards that were directly connected to him came down.
It took nearly half an hour to take down the wards around the town but he didn’t pause before turning to the Fidelius. It came down far more easily than he would have expected and the moment he did, he dropped his wand and pulled out a small ceremonial knife from his robes. This was the awkward part with only one hand. He shifted the knife so that he was grasping the blade rather than the hilt then gripped hard, feeling the sharp blade bite into his skin.
He opened his hand and let the blade fall to the floor. He then held his hand out and allowed his blood to start dripping onto the stone floor. The blood wards immediately roared to life in his mind but he wasn’t alarmed or intimidated. He’d been dealing with them since the death of his father and they were old ‘friends’. It was a matter of moments to lock down the blood wards around the mansion and thus deny access to anyone who wasn’t a Lestrange by blood or in Bella and Lisa’s cases, by marriage. Not even Theodore would be able to gain access now. The only outsiders able to access it would be the family house elves.
He finally relaxed now that the task was done and bent over to pick up his wand. He would leave the knife and blood for a house elf to clean up. For now, he wanted to return to Greengrass Monar and prepare for the final move to Five Ashes and the raising of the Fidelius there.