"I really didn't train for nothing all this time..." Rodolphus lifted the wand in his hand, stood up, walked over, and held out a hand to pull Lucius to his feet. "Of course I'm not useless. I don't need my right hand now, either."
"Then why did you... er, sorry, I misunderstood and meddled..." Lucius was puzzled at first, then understood his old friend's thinking—compared with himself, Rodolphus was the one who was proud down to his bones as a Pureblood. He looked down on Mudbloods even more than Lucius did, and enjoyed slaughtering Muggles, but he had only followed You-Know-Who because of Bellatrix. Otherwise, he would never have followed the half-blood You-Know-Who... Recent events clearly made Rodolphus unwilling to expose the fact that he had recovered his strength in order to fight for missions.
"Lucius, you coward. Look how badly you scared yourself." Rodolphus smiled contemptuously. "I'm your captain. Back at school, I was the one who always had your back. If anything happens, I'll take the heat for you... just like I know these troublesome things you found for me weren't really what you intended... If I'd wanted to tell Master this secret, I would have said it long ago. Why would I wait until now?"
After a moment of silence, the look on Lucius's pale face, which had gone white from the sudden spasm in his heart, gradually eased. He waved his wand toward the door and said softly, "Muffliato."
"Little coward..." Rodolphus slid his wand back into his belt and said mockingly, "You only remembered now? I cast that spell ages ago. We made such a racket fighting just now and no one noticed. Did you think they were all deaf?"
Lucius's cold gray-blue eyes shifted. His pale, pointed face turned toward Rodolphus, and he walked