Watching Old Nott scramble out of the meeting room to verify the information with the goblins, Lucius stood there trembling, deeply unsettled.
He understood why Old Nott had merely threatened and bribed that goblin rather than resorting to more direct methods. The wizarding world had enjoyed peace for too long; over these past dozen years, they had all grown accustomed to doing things according to "the rules" and had yet to recover the mindset of wartime.
But—
Standing hunched over, Lucius watched the Dark Lord pacing back and forth through the spacious room from the corner of his eye, a trace of doubt arising in his mind. The Dark Lord seemed deeply concerned by the goblin's claim that Breen had opened an ancient vault at Gringotts.
Whose vault had Breen opened, exactly, and what had he obtained?
Lucius was not the only one considering that question. Voldemort was thinking about it as well.
According to Lucius, it had been Breen who resolved the Chamber of Secrets crisis caused by the diary he had created. That Horcrux of his must have been destroyed by Breen personally.
Certainly, a diary protected by Horcrux magic was not something any mediocre wizard could destroy. But for Breen, who was skilled in Fiendfyre, it would not have been particularly difficult.
Losing one Horcrux was not an unbearable loss. The crucial question was whether Breen had recognized what that object was.
With his back to Lucius, Voldemort gazed out over the gloomy gardens of Malfoy Manor, refusing to let Lucius see the unease that had surfaced within him.
Horcruxes were his greatest secret, the foundation of his immortality. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong with them.
Dumbledore was a pedantic hypocrite, surely with no interest in magic as profound and unfathomable as Horcruxes. But Breen,