milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Draco was sitting to the back of the bar, watching. Even asking for simple tea was a chore. Been bringing his own supplies for some of it. Just until this tofu nonsense was sorted out. Watchful eyes for some key people in fact. That month extension was almost up. And he still owed debts to people.

Happy Christmas indeed.

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"Save? Save who? From what?"

Colour's returning to his face.

"What sort of bargain did you strike with my brother?"

Draco bluntly stated, "I told you, and I'm not going to repeat just because your lovely holiday and drink has addled your brain."

He added in a sharp but quieter tone, "The new deal is I arrange for us to meet somewhere, only I tell him where and when that is. Got an extra month out of that deal."

He's never felt it before with any child, but right now giving Draco a slap is proving to be a temptation that's difficult to resist.

Honestly. People do forget.

"And he kills you if you don't." He frowns. That can't be allowed to happen. "It seems as though you'll have to do what he wants. Regardless of what you or I want."

Letting people die isn't an option here.

Draco nodded.

You don't know what I want. I wanted the blasted Dark Lord never to have returned in the first place. We were just fine without him. And actually how do you know this isn't what *I* want?

"Exactly. The deal goes through." One way or another, I'll win.

He says nothing for at least a good five minutes. Rabastan needs to formulate a plan. A way to deal with Rodolphus once and for all and in a non-violent manner. And he's going to need help. Outside help. Someone who can carry out what Rabastan wants done.

We have to neutralise him. Render him harmless. We can't give him the Kiss there's no Dementors here. No. We need to do something else. But what? And who would be willing to do it?

"We have to counter him. Make him think he's won. Let him believe you've somehow tricked me into meeting you so he'll be willing to walk into a trap of our own making. One he won't walk out of the way he walked into it...

But how? I don't want more people dead. Not even my own brother."

Draco nodded slowly as he listened. He was thinking something along those lines. More or less.

"And no way for him to return to the Dark Lord. He'd be as good as dead then anyway."

Slow cruel smile appeared as he added in a contemplative tone, "If only there was a way for it to seem like he was dead, or worse, defected. Reveal him as a traitor to the cause."

"No," he says before he can check himself. "The Dark Lord would never believe Rodolphus had turned traitor. He's too willing to do whatever the Dark Lord commands to become a turncoat."

That and he remembers overhearing his brother swear that not even Rodolphus' death would keep him from serving Voldemort. From helping Voldemort achieve his goals.

"But keeping him from returning. We can do that. Keep him from leaving the bar. But how does one stop a man from leaving freely? Assuming he isn't Bound that is."

"Unless there was a way to prove he was only doing so to later betray him? Only way to get close to the Dark Lord." Granted this is assuming that Rodolphus was that clever, and guarded. Not likely, otherwise he might be more like Snape.

Draco then replied loftily, "Have to convince him otherwise. I'm sure there are ways to do so. We are wizards after all. And Slytherin ones at that. Do whatever's necessary for our goals." Proving that ulititarianism exists in the wizarding world. At least for some.

"The Dark Lord would never believe us," he says shaking his head. "He'd see through us in a heartbeat.

No. What we need to do is to render Rodolphus useless. Even if the Dark Lord did believe our story that Rodolphus is a traitor he'd kill him and use the body for an Inferius.

We have to make Rodolphus someone not worth having. It would devestate him to be unable to serve his beloved master, alive or dead."

Draco briefly shuddered at the Inferius mention. Nasty things.

"Someone...or something."

No one ever said the Dark Lord was all teddy bears and kittens...

"Something..," he mutters. Yes. That's it. That has to be it. The door permits people to leave but that person has to be himself at the time in order to leave. If Rodolphus was something he wasn't normally he'd never leave at all.

"Draco I do believe you're onto something. We could turn Rodolphus into something effectively too useless to be of any worth to the Dark Lord. Something small. Something harmless."

Draco thought for a moment, "Something harmless. That'll be tricky with some of the creatures around here."

He glanced around the bar. A cat snoozing. Not that harmless considering Yrael. A owl, Merlin no. A dog? Possibly... Then something caught his eye and he found himself watching the waitrats taking orders.

"Something small, harmless, and servile...hmmmm...." Another smile as he observed.

Dogs and owls can be servile if you choose the right kind. But dogs have teeth and owls talons. If they don't want to do something, well, they take a chunk out of you.

"What have you got in mind?"

"Something small, harmless... and obedient," Draco smiled as he pointed toward one of the rats.

Wormtail's a rat but he's not exactly obedient. Just scared shitless of Voldemort.

Still...

"A rat. A waitrat serving tea and crumpets all day. It could work. And he would be harmless and helpless to boot."

In other words, it could work.

"But how do we turn him into a rat? Neither of us could do it, least of all myself, considering I'd have to be the bait needed to get him where we want him to be."

Draco started to say otherwise, but stopped himself.
It was true. Would have to be someone else.

"Well, we both know people who might be able to do something about that."

He then thought, "I suppose it might even have to be another world's magic. Harder for him to counter it then."

Draco would have to be present after all. That means he wouldn't be able to cast the spell since his job would be to be the reason Rabastan was where he was at that moment in time.

Outside help is pretty much something they'll need here.

"I do, though I'm not sure Strahan could do it. He said he could only transform non-living things—people are beyond him. But Asar-Suti can change people, and getting him to do it won't be hard. It's not the revenge he wants but it'll provide him with a sick and twisted sort of entertainment to hopefully get him to agree to it."

Another world's magic then.

Draco nodded, "Sounds like just the one then." He too thought the idea to be likewise entertaining.

Rabastan smiles. He feels good about this. A resolution that won't keep him up at night worrying or regretting that he could've done it all differently and didn't.

It's peaceful. No violence but Rodolphus will be punished regardless. He'll serve people their breakfasts—Muggles and all—and like it too.

"I will have to ask him; see if he's willing to do it."

I hope he'll be willing to do it because I don't want to think about what'll happen if he won't.

Draco just nodded, silently hoping so. Right now it was their best option really.

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