London, Diagon Alley, September 21st, 14.30 hours

Ron Weasley didn't like this part of the plan. But Dumbledore had thought of it, and Luna had volunteered, and even Hermione had, after some arguing, agreed. And so he was - discreetly - watching as Luna was flirting with Draco Malfoy.

Technically, she wasn't flirting, just being her usual friendly and cheerful self. But the little monster facing her would certainly think she was flirting. Ron knew men like him, who took every smile as an invitation for more.

He hadn't made any advances so far, but the two were in public. He wouldn't try anything there. Still... he didn't like Luna being so close to the Minister's son.

The blonde laughed, pointed at something on the parchment her Dicta Quill was scribbling on, then handed it to Draco. Ron, hidden behind a Daily Prophet and spying on them through his enchanted glasses, tensed up. But nothing happened when Draco took the parchment into his bare hands. The coating of the parchment didn't register as a poison then.

He still didn't like the setup. Luna should be protected by an alchemical concoction of Dumbledore's that covered her skin, but he knew he wouldn't be able to relax until the witch had finished her 'interview' and Draco was gone.

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Yorkshire, Nidderdale, September 21st, 1999, 23.21 hours

"Does every safe house look like a cottage or hut?"

Wand-Leader Hermione snickered at Ron's question. "Not every one. The house in Diagon Alley that the Malfoys use is quite impressive. But for a safe house, something less ostentatious seems better. Less obvious."

Ron grunted. "If every safe house looks like that, it's becoming obvious."

Hermione refrained from pointing out that there were far more huts and cottages than impressive estates. Her boyfriend was just a bit unhappy that yet another night was spent mostly on a broom. Even though she didn't mind sitting behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Well... you said there are guards?" Ron asked, pulling out a bag from his enchanted pocket.

"Yes. Two Wands and one Healer are stationed there," Hermione said.

"Are they rotated in and out?"

"No. They stay there for as long as the safe house is in active use - usually a period of months. Otherwise, too many would know about its location."

"Wow. That's some boring post." He shook his head.

"While it's against regulations, I do think we can expect the defenses to be a bit more lax than they should be," Hermione said.

"They would still be enough to stop us. If this thing doesn't work..." Ron shook his head and put what looked like a miniature muggle vehicle down.

"Your brothers swore it would work," Hermione pointed out.

"Yes, I know. And I trust them. I just remember them when they were younger, and less trustworthy." He put the thing down and held a box in his hands with a few buttons and levers. A very long cable connected the two.

"What is it exactly?"

"The twins called it a 'remote-controlled miniature Jagdpanther'," he said and pushed two levers forward. The small vehicle started to move forward, then stopped. "Well, it works. So far. Now it has to pass through the wards." He pulled a invisibility cloak over himself and stood up so he could see over the low wall they were hiding behind, then set the small vehicle down there and sent it forward.

Hermione put on her own cloak and stood next to him. She could barely see the dark cable that trailed behind the 'Jagdpanther' and it would be close to invisible from inside the cottage, as the vehicle itself was, if anyone ever looked outside. Ron could only control it thanks to spelled goggles, or he'd lose sight of it as well.

"Close to the wardline... and we're through."

Hermione held her breath. If the theory of the twins had been wrong... it wasn't. Since the thing was devoid of any magic, and technically completely harmless, the wards wouldn't detect, much less stop it.

About ten minutes later the small thing had reached the cottage.

"Wind's blowing from the correct side. I'm releasing the 'payload'," Ron said, pushing another button. Hermione imagined how the gas was released, and entered the cottage.

They waited five more minutes, then Ron made the vehicle drive back. Not all the way though - neither of them wanted to be close to the thing now. Even if the gas it had dispensed was supposed to be harmless by itself. They mounted their brooms and flew away, dragging the thing behind them on the rest of the cable, then vanished it as soon as they were out of sight and range of the cottage.

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London, Ministry of Magic, September 22nd, 1999, 20.05 hours

"Your Advisor in Defense Matters has arrived, sir," Daphne Greengrass said, standing at the door.

"Thank you, dear. Send him in please."

Minister for Magic Lucius Malfoy took care not to show his curiosity, nor his - slight - anxiety. He had to appear both confident and calm to his subordinates, even if Severus wanted to meet him with 'urgent news' and such a message from his spy among the Dark Lord's ranks was more than enough cause to be concerned.

Severus entered, and Lucius's secretary closed the door behind him. The potioneer sat down in his usual seat, looking around.

"We're alone," Lucius assured him. He rubbed his artificial left hand with his right.

Severus nodded. "Good. This information cannot leave this room. It's too dangerous." He leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I've looked into the matter of the ambush Draco almost died in."

Lucius leaned forward as well, taking a deep breath. His spy hadn't known about the attack on his son in advance, which had thrown some doubt on just how much the Dark Lord had trusted him.

"You know that the Dark Lord wants your entire family to die."

Lucius nodded. That wasn't exactly a surprise. Lucius had known this was the result of giving Draco the task to hunt the Dark Lord. Had even counted on it. Severus wouldn't have considered this urgent news though.

"He has a plan to assassinate you, and has trusted its execution to the same person who planned the attack on Draco."

Lucius blinked and felt fear rise inside him, before he fought it back down. The Dark Lord had wanted to kill him for over a decade, and hadn't managed so far. "Have you found out how he plans to kill me?" He was well-protected, but if he knew more he could foil any plan.

Severus nodded. "Poison."

Lucius's eyes widened. "Poison?" That was a surprise. With detection spells and numerous antidotes available, poison didn't seem to be a very likely means to assassinate him. "I assume then that the Dark Lord has obtained a very exotic poison that he thinks will get past my defenses."

"Yes." Severus nodded. "He discussed it with me."

Again, no surprise. The Dark Lord certainly would have discussed such a poison with his best potioneer, and asked for advice, since he thought Severus was his loyal spy and was meeting regularly with Lucius. And, Lucius realised, not for the first time, the Dark Lord might not be wrong. If Severus ever thought that Lucius was losing this conflict, he could easily switch sides.

The question was: Did his spy think that? And if so, were the precautions Lucius had taken - he glanced at the crystal on his desk, which was still inert, and the panel in the wall to his side - sufficient to protect him? He didn't have to fear Severus drawing his wand on him, not in this room, but his spy was a potioneer...

"Which poison is it?" Lucius asked, not showing any sign of his growing anxiety. He couldn't afford to appear weak. He blinked.

"It's a muggle one."

Lucius chuckled. "A muggle one?" A bezoar would counter anything the muggles could concoct. Anyone who had passed their N.E.W.T.s exams in Potions knew that. But why would the Dark Lord stoop to such measures?

Severus didn't share his mirth. "I should be more precise. It's a poison adapted from a muggle invention."

Lucius blinked. "A muggle invention?"

"Yes. A binary poison."

Severus was stalling, Lucius realised suddenly. He would not usually take his time in displaying his knowledge. And if he was stalling, then that meant... he blinked again. Was his vision getting blurry?

He slapped his left hand over his mouth and swallowed the bezoar hidden in his palm. His wrist-holster shot his wand into his hand, but he fumbled the catch, and it clattered on his desk. He tried to grasp it, but his wand arm didn't seem to work anymore. Nor did his voice seem to work anymore. Or his lungs.

His left arm did, though. As did the surprises he had built into it. Thin needles shot out of his fingers, but the traitor had dropped to the floor, out of his rapidly diminishing sight. He wished he had installed a trap in his arm, like Antonin. But he had other means to get revenge. He smashed the inkwell on his desk, alerting his guards.

Then his sight faded completely, and the burning in his lungs grew painful. He heard the door opening, heard a shriek, and then nothing anymore.

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London, Diagon Alley, September 22nd, 1999, 20.15 hours

"I am sorry, sir, but I have never encountered a Snorkack on the continent. Although I cannot claim to have been..."

Albus Dumbledore had expected it, and so he didn't jump up when a glowing white doe appeared in Mister Weasley's room in the Leaky Cauldron and announced "It is done" in Severus's voice.

The others though had jumped up, and Miss Weasley had even drawn her wand. He had expected that as well, and didn't comment on it. Instead he slowly stood up and said: "Lucius Malfoy has been killed. The Ministry will be in lockdown soon, and the Wands on high alert. Let us be off so we are ready."

Fred and George Weasley were the first. Smiling widely, they grabbed their brooms, disillusioned themselves, and disapparated.

Mister Lovegood, with whom he had been discussing various fascinating animals, was next. He hugged his daughter, then dropped a small piece into a vial. A gulp later, his body started to shake and tremble, then blur, and the Dark Lord's inhuman form stood in the room. He blinked, which was a very disconcerting sight for those not used to chimeras, then smiled. Which was even more upsetting. "Marvelous! That's how it feels to be a half-naga!"

His daughter cleared her throat. "Daddy, you need to be off now. Remember the plan!"

"Of course I remember, my little darling! I'll be scaring Hogsmeade and Hogwarts!"

"Be careful!" Luna said, right before her father disapparated.

Miss Hermione pulled out a vibrating stone. "A general alert. I've to report to my team," she said, smiling grimly. She exchanged a hug with Mister Weasley, then disapparated.

That left Sirius, Harry, Mister Weasley, Miss Weasley, Luna and Albus himself. Half a dozen - a quite typical number for a Death Eater raiding team, at least in the last war. He smiled at them. Brave young wizards and witches, all of them.

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When they appeared in a side alley of Knockturn Alley, wearing the garb of Death Eaters including the typical masks, they heard screams from afar. Fred and George Weasley had started to set fire to roofs then, using incendiary draught. Not quite as dangerous as Fiendfyre, nor as deadly, but the fires it started would take some effort to put out, tying up forces from the Ministry. Albus cast a quick spell. Draco was in Diagon Alley, but far from their position.

He led the group, disillusioned, to the back of the Malfoys' home. Then came the risky part - taking down the wards. He had studied the wards the day before, and he was confident that, with the help of the wand he had won from Gellert, he could take them down quickly - they weren't old wards, created by blood sacrifices, like those on many manors of old families. The question was: Would he be quick enough so the expected response would not arrive? Fred and George Weasley would have finished their arson campaign by now, and would fake an attack on the Ministry, but once the wards of the Malfoys went down, the Wands would react. And if they appeared while he was still taking down the wards, the backlash would be terrible.

But the spell had been cast, the fight was on. He raised his wand and started to tear down the protections on the house.

It took him five minutes to take the wards down, and he felt more exhausted than he had hoped. Rushing things, he thought, breathing heavily, always led to more effort than needed. Out loud he said: "It's done!" while sealing the windows on this side of the house with a flick of his wrist.

He immediately focused on what he had seen in Miss Hermione's memories, and apparated into the house, right into the room with the Floo connection. He had an Anti-Apparition Jinx covering the building, preventing anyone from fleeing or coming to their rescue, before the two guards realised he was there.

The Wands there were quick and skilled, but they had been covering the Floo connection and the door, and he had appeared in the corner of the room. The first Wand was down, smashed into the wall, before she could react, the second's first spell was stopped by his shield, and the Wand didn't get another spell off before he too joined his comrade at the wall.

He didn't like to hurt them, but if he just stunned them, some would suspect foul play. Even them surviving would be suspicious. Hopefully, Sirius and the others would not have to kill anyone, other than Narcissa of course.

Albus transfigured the Floo connection into a flowerpot, sealing it off - and stopping the Thief's Downfall above it that would remove both disguises and compulsions from any passing through. Then he cursed the two Wands with a slow-acting, exotic, dark spell he knew that St. Mungo's had the counter-curse for, and strode out of the room. Time was of the essence.

A Wand was running down the stairs, saw him and stopped, wand rising. Albus hit her with a stunner before opening a hole underneath her, sealing the witch into the stairs. Another spell made it appear as if the cracks in the stone allowing her to keep breathing were the unintentional result of a curse aimed at her during the fight.

He sealed the front door and windows while Sirius entered the hallway. "Back's clear. Two Wands down and cursed," he announced, rushing up the stairs followed by Harry, Mister Weasley and Miss Weasley.

Luna though - he recognised the marker he had left on her disguise - wandered over to him. "We should head to Draco's room," she whispered.

"He will have been evacuated to the safehouse by now," he said.

"Mh... we should still go to his room."

He took a look outside. No reinforcements were arriving so far. Nodding, he led the witch upstairs, past a whimpering, suffering Wand on the first floor. Sirius's work; Harry didn't use those kind of spells.

They arrived in front of Draco's room thanks to Miss Hermione's memories. The door was closed, locked and reinforced. It wouldn't stop him, of course.

"Please open a mouse hole in the wall."

Intrigued, he did as Luna asked. She nodded, and he just knew she was smiling behind her mask, then knelt down and pulled out a small box. A spell later and a mouse hurried through the hole he had opened.

"Snuffbox to Mouse," she said, standing up. "Many think it's not a useful spell, but I think it's just overlooked, and deserves its chance to shine. Although it's not really a snuffbox, if it contains no snuff, is it?" Then she swished her wand.

"Finite."

Despite the situation he smiled behind his own mask and aimed his wand at the door. It wouldn't take long for the second part of the binary poison that Luna had just released to take effect.

A few seconds later, the door was opened and a Blasting Curse stopped by his shield. A Banishing Charm threw the witch trying to rush out back into the room, despite her Shield Charm, and into the wall. The other witch, kneeling next to a body on the ground, sent a volley of curses at him which he sidestepped, ending her Shield Charm, then hitting her legs with a Bone-Breaking Curse. She collapsed, screaming, before a Stunning Spell knocked her out.

Draco lay there, twitching. The Wands had been trying to save him - Albus saw vials of what had to have been antidotes, and a box with bezoars on the ground. Not that either would have worked against the poison Albus and Nicolas had created.

"He might have some Cockroach in his line, they are very hard to kill after all," Luna said, staring down at Draco. Lucius's son was foaming at the mouth and making gargling noises with each breath he took. When the foam turned red, Luna shook her head. "But even those cockroaches die to the right kind of poison."

Draco stiffened, then relaxed, his open eyes staring sightlessly at them. Luna shrugged and picked up the snuffbox she had transfigured earlier, sealing it up before storing it inside her robe. Albus approved of her caution - they were protected from the binary poison's effect, but it was better not to take too many chances. It was not quite basilisk poison, but it was a serious threat even to alchemists, if they were careless.

"How did you know he was here?" Albus asked.

"It was an easy deduction. Draco always ran to his parents if there was any trouble. With his daddy dead, that left his mummy," Luna said.

The two left the room and headed to the uppermost floor. Sirius and the others were already there.

"My dear cousin's dead," the wizard announced. "She never was as good with curses as she thought. Unlike Bellatrix. I've used a family curse. If the Wands are clever they'll track it back to Bellatrix; it was a favorite of hers."

Right then the house shook. "Reinforcements have arrived," Albus stated calmly. "Please mount your brooms." He did so himself, then aimed his wand at the ceiling.

"Bombarda."

His spell blew most of the roof away, opening a hole for them to fly through. The debris thrown up had hampered the flyers who were not chasing after the twins, and their scattered formation was not able to stop them from flying outside the Anti-Apparition Jinxes and apparating into a forest near the one Draco had almost died in.

The Wands wouldn't apparate blindly into another possible ambush, so the group had ample time to shed their disguises and vanish them.

"That's the end of the Malfoy regime!" Sirius declared. "The end of our exile!" The others cheered and Luna did a little dance.

Albus let them enjoy the moment, before they mounted their brooms and set out to return to London. The Malfoys were dead, but that didn't mean the exiled British could return. And the real enemy was still alive. And Tom would now be aware that someone else was involved in this war.

Severus planned to lay the blame for this on Augustus, making Tom believe the man had survived the incident in the Department of Mysteries, but Albus didn't think the Dark Lord would fall for that ruse.

No, the fight against Voldemort would not be quite as easy as ending the Malfoys had been.