Voldemort held a magically reinforced surgical scalpel of refined steel in his right hand.
In his left, he held a pair of fine, long forceps deep within the giant beast's pulsing organs.
His scarlet eyes held none of a wizard's fervor for spellcasting.
There was only the cold scrutiny of an utterly rational scholar.
"Great master."
Fighting back the urge to vomit, Lucius dropped to one knee at the edge of the pool of blood.
With trembling hands, he offered up the sweat-soaked special edition of the Daily Prophet.
"You must see this unforgivable crime."
"That bastard Holmes has gone mad!"
Lucius's voice cracked with fear.
"He's brought Muggle machines into Azkaban and forced your followers to work those degrading pedals!"
"He has trampled on the most sacred pride of the pure-blood families!"
Voldemort did not spare so much as a glance for the crumpled newspaper.
The scalpel in his hand steadily severed a thick blood vessel beside the Nundu's heart.
"Spare me your useless whining, Lucius."
Voldemort's voice was astonishingly soft, yet bone-chillingly cold.
"Have you fools still not grasped the underlying logic of this world?"
He secured the bleeding point with a vascular clamp.
"In the face of the absolute gulf in power left by the loss of the instinct to cast spells."
"That so-called pure-blood pride you speak of is worth less than a pile of stinking dog shit."
Voldemort tossed aside the scalpel.
With blood-covered fingers, he picked up a Muggle battery-powered pacemaker made of silver wires and chips.
Lucius watched in utter horror.
Voldemort roughly forced the pacemaker's lead into the Nundu's heart valve.
A visible surge of high-frequency current shocked the magical beast's body into violent convulsions.
It let out a shrill cry at the very limits of its endurance.
But under the compulsion