"What is it, Yaxley? I told you not to summon me unless it was important."
The swirling forest-green magical flames had just faded. Standing beside the fireplace, Snape glared darkly at his colleague, clearly displeased that Yaxley had once again called him over.
"I never meant to order you around, Severus."
Yaxley gestured for Snape to sit, indicating that his grim-faced, unreadable colleague should take a seat. "I merely wished to pass along the Dark Lord's message."
"What does the Dark Lord need me to do?"
Snape frowned slightly as he looked at his high-spirited colleague lounging in an armchair.
He knew that the Dark Lord had recently been abroad, searching for someone's whereabouts, and that things did not seem to be going particularly well.
"The Dark Lord needs you to find Dumbledore's wand." Yaxley relayed Voldemort's instructions to Snape.
"Dumbledore's wand?"
Snape found Voldemort's command deeply puzzling.
What did Voldemort want with Dumbledore's wand?
"Yes, the Dark Lord seems dissatisfied with his own wand. Perhaps he wants a wand of tremendous power," Yaxley said in a lowered voice, "to deal with that damned Mudblood."
"I do not deny that Albert Anderson is someone worth being wary of, but surely he has not reached the point of making the Dark Lord take him this seriously?" Snape was thoroughly confused.
He knew the Dark Lord was deeply wary of Anderson. That man's strength had long surpassed that of an ordinary wizard and was infinitely close to what Dumbledore had once been.
The Dark Lord certainly did not want another wizard as powerful as Dumbledore to emerge. But pinning his hopes of eliminating Anderson on a powerful wand seemed exceedingly strange, since there were surely better ways.
"I heard the Dark Lord is looking for the Deathstick."
Yaxley deliberately revealed part of