Hostile takeover

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

The kitchen of Lucius' mansion is a relatively unwelcoming place that has been thought of for house elves. The place is gloomy but immaculately clean.

This morning just after my conversation with Lucius, he urgently organized a reception with the other Death Eaters in order to recruit useful elements into our ranks and incapacitate others.

I wait quietly for Lucius to do his part and have a good dinner with his old comrades until they succumb to the sleeping potion that we have hidden in their dishes.

"The master asks Mr. Bones to join him in the dining room." Dobby has just appeared in front of me and invites me to follow him into the dining room.

When the doors of the room open in front of me, Lucius is quietly seated enjoying his dinner while the Death Eaters are either asleep on their plates or on the floor.

"Enjoy your meal Lucius, if you don't mind I'll get to work immediately." Lucius nods before taking a sip from his glass of red wine.

I levitate the bodies of all the Death Eaters to line them up against the wall of the room and separate them into two groups. On one side, Death Eaters that Lucius believes are useful to our faction, Avery, Crabbe, Gibbon, Goyle, Jugson, Mulcibert, Nott, Rowle, Selwyn, Yaxley, and Severus Snape. The others will be enslaved by my seal and will join my army of puppets.

Once all those we want to propose to join us are disarmed and strapped to their chairs. I begin to work on the five Lucius deems too dangerous to join us, the Carrow twins, Macnair, Rookwood and Travers. After a few minutes I finished engraving my mark and started mind manipulation. I withdraw from them their thirst for violence, their hatred of Muggles, and I install a fierce hatred of Voldemort as well as an overwhelming urge to serve the members of the shadow conglomerate.

"Have you finished?" Lucius has just finished his soup and I see the meat dishes slowly arriving to the table.

"Yes, you just have to convince as many of your friends as possible. Do you think you can?"

"Yes, I never leave anything to chance." Lucius takes a small bottle from his pocket and I can read the name of the potion, Felix Felicis.

I sit down at the table as my new servants station themselves around the room, motionless like marble statues. A nice plate of roast beef land in front of me, and I begin to eat while waiting for Lucius' other guests to wake up. Snape is the first among them to wake up and I suspect him to have come here as Dumbledore's spy.

"Mr. Bones, why am I not surprised to find you once again in the middle of a… problematic situation." While Snape's attention is fixed on me, Lucius takes the opportunity to drink his potion.

"Good evening professor, I am very sorry for the awkward position you find yourself in, but Lucius and I have a project that we would like to present to you."

"Severus, Lord Voldemort is back." Snape paled at Lucius' announcement. "But we have a plan to end this for good and we need your help as well as the others. We have created a new secret society which aims at the financial and political interest of its members, and that interest goes through. eliminating Voldemort. We would like you to join us, you are an accomplished potions master and wizard with great knowledge of the inner workings of Hogwarts. "

"Your new order doesn't seem much different from our little meetings at Lord Voldemort's table, I only see Death Eaters gathered in this room." Snape's hatred for Lucius is blatant.

"For now, our main objective is to destroy Voldemort, which is why we plan to weaken him by recruiting his old allies and then recruiting new ones once that is done."

"In that case, I don't see why I'm strapped to this chair, my loyalty isn't with the Dark Lord for a long time now."

"No, but it goes to Albus Dumbledore, which is neither in our best interest nor in yours."

"What do you mean, Lucius?"

"That Albus is already very old. That we already have the political and financial means to influence the choice of the next headmaster of the school. A position that has interested you for a few years, Severus."

I take the contract out of my pocket and put it in front of Snape.

"This is a magical contract which mimics the effects of an inviolable oath, I let you read the clauses of it at your ease." Snape takes several minutes to go through the document, I guess he's looking for loopholes he could exploit.

"Fine, I'm going to sign this contract. You better keep your words and make it profitable for me."

"Of course, it's in our best interests that our members have the greatest influence possible." I did well to bet on the talents of Lucius Malfoy to bend people to its will, it's with him that I have the best chance to convince a maximum of Death Eaters to join us. Now that the tougher one has fallen, it should be easier with the others.