Heavy rain poured outside while a fire burned in the old manor's hall. A wizard was speaking respectfully to the person in the armchair.
"Have you found that Mudblood's hiding place?"
There was a hint of surprise in Voldemort's hoarse voice. He was clearly taken aback by his capable subordinate's efficiency.
"I used the Imperius Curse on Diggory." Yaxley respectfully handed the letter to Voldemort. "But I cannot be sure whether it is a trap. That Mudblood is very cunning. Lucius and the Lestrange family both fell into his hands. This may also be a trap meant to lure us in."
"You intend to use that old woman to determine whether it is a trap?"
After glancing over the letter's contents, Voldemort tossed it into the fireplace and watched it burn to ashes in the flames.
"Yes, my Lord."
"Go bring her here." Voldemort paused. "Oh, and I assume you have captured her family as well."
"They have already been brought here. Dementors are guarding them," Yaxley said.
"Very good. I would like to see whether the old woman can remain so stubbornly defiant." Voldemort sneered.
Before long, Yaxley pushed a wheelchair into the hall. Sitting in it was none other than Cassandra Vablatsky, the Prophecy Master who had disappeared from St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries some time ago.
"Do as I told you."
Yaxley placed a crystal ball before the elderly Prophecy Master.
The old woman shakily extended her hand. The instant her fingers touched the crystal ball, the thick mist within it began to whirl like a vortex.
Yet when the mist stopped spinning, all that remained in sight was dense fog.
"It failed?"
Yaxley stared at the crystal ball, a slight frown forming between his brows.
"It failed. Divination and prophecy were never very