Voldemort drew his wand and pointed it at the battered, brown-haired wizard with short curls hanging upside down above the long table, making his body rotate slightly in the air. "Some of you may not know the guest we have the honor of inviting tonight... Of course, for him, his luck can hardly be called good..."
All the Death Eaters wore malicious smiles, their eyes rolling upward to look at the pitiful wizard, as if they had been given permission to show their curiosity.
"Originally, the target we decided to capture was Madam Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts. She previously published an article claiming those filthy things are no different from us... She wanted, in her own way... to have us intermarry with Muggles..." Voldemort's gaze swept over the Death Eaters around him, and a wave of mocking, crazed laughter immediately rang out along the long table. Bellatrix's laughter was especially mad and shrill.
Voldemort raised a hand to stop his followers' echoes, his gaze finally settling on several people seated in the middle of the long table to his right. "But those useless Carrow siblings told me Madam Burbage seemed to have foreseen our operation and applied to the Ministry of Magic for additional guards... They believed they could not catch her... so, in their arrogance, they brought this unlucky editor from Witch Weekly, who published that article, here to make up the numbers..."
The people around the long table watched Voldemort in fear and trembling. Pansy's father, Parkinson, in particular, began to shake all over. Though the temperature in the stone hall was comfortable, sweat kept rolling down his forehead, and when his eyes swept over the wizard hanging in midair, he shuddered.
"I just happen to have a troublesome problem to solve during the