They had planned this perfectly, they had inside help and they had everything on their side. It was time to show the Ministry that nowhere was safe.
But then it all went wrong. As soon as they were in there, Rodolphus could see that his Death Eaters had walked into an ambush. Uniformed Aurors, Hitwizards and what he recognised as the Order surrounded them. Weasleys, the mudblood, Potter and their friends - they were all there.
Snarling, he swore loudly and then barked orders for everyone to move forward anyway. Immediately spells were flying and they were in the thick of it. Outnumbered but willing to go ahead.
Sending a curse at two of the Hitwizards in front of him, he shot another one at someone younger, he didn't recognise them but it didn't matter. Moving around the edge of the group, someone told him that Rabastan was dead, just in passing and then they were out of there, heading towards the floo that had been set up for their escape. Immediately looking around, Rodolphus had a hard time seeing through the crowd, angry at the thought of picking out one of the bodies on the floor as his brother.
Wildly casting hexes, curses and Avada Kedavra wherever he could, he wasn't even really caring who they were going to hit. Clearing a path for himself was the most important thing. If his brother was dead, he wanted to know, and see it for himself.
Grabbing the closest masked individual, he didn't even need to ask as they pointed him in the right direction. Sure enough, after a number of steps forward and cursing an Auror that got in his way, Rodolphus found his brother's lifeless body on the ground.
He was furious. This was not meant to happen. This had been planned carefully and Rabastan had known exactly what he was doing. They had been betrayed.
With a yell, Rodolphus sent another array of curses and hexes into the crowd as he made his way to their floo. They were outnumbered and he wasn't going to risk getting caught by the other side. One of their own side had betrayed them - and they were going to pay for it.