Protection: The Sword and the Shield

The Wedding

......July 17, 1993

......Fidelius Hidden Location, within one square mile of Tinworth (Wizarding Village)

Rabastan Lestrange was mostly recovered from his ordeal and his brother Rodolphus would likely be on his feet and fighting in another week. Like his sister-in-law, he was appalled at the news of where the country was going and livid that Sirius Black had stolen from his family.

It was decided that the upcoming Black wedding would make a perfect test run for their grander plan and also cause the right amount of devastation and, of course, revenge. Sirius Black was going to marry a squib and make her the new Lady Black. Killing his bride would test their plan and be a proper response to what he had done to his own house and the Lestrange House.

The grand plan was ingenious, as far as the group was concerned. Severus Snape was going to sneak one of them, Bellatrix, into Hogwarts when the school year began. As a teacher his things would not be searched and they could hide in a multi-compartment trunk. They had inscribed some magic masking runes in the one they had as an additional safety precaution.

Once inside, they would coordinate attacks inside and outside of the school. Bellatrix would kill a muggleborn and Rodolphus and Rabastan would murder the child's entire family at the same time. It would not take long for the Ministry to come in to the school. Bellatrix believed it would take four attacks, but Narcissa thought it would be after two.

At that point Bellatrix would kill a few Aurors before Severus snuck her back out. Lastly they would seek out the dead Aurors' families and kill them as well, then lay low again. Bellatrix could already taste the fear and terror in the air as people no longer believed that anywhere was safe. What good would Potter wards be if the ones at Hogwarts could be breached?

To test their plan Severus would sneak Bellatrix into the Black wedding as a gift. She would murder the bride, while she stood at the altar, from a hidden location at the back of the ceremony before disappearing back into the hidden gift box. Severus would sneak her back out in the confusion. Severus was especially happy with that portion of the plan.

Unfortunately for the conspirators, they were not the only ones discovering methods to breach wards. The key to the Deatheater's plan was that intent mattered in magic. Bringing something willingly into a warded area when the wards were set to accept you meant the wards considered it part of you. For wards like at Hogwarts that meant that if a person brought luggage, the wards would let the luggage pass if it only had a minor magical signature of its own.

Objects with a person attached to them, unless specifically banned by the wards, would not even be recorded in the ward matrix. The Fidelius was a ward that hid a location within someone's magic. If you were brought to the location without knowing the secret, it would be disorienting as you would have no clue as to where you were nor could your mind pick out any of the details. When you left the area however, you would be fine and you would remember the experience.

The Berserks used these two facts to plant a bug on Severus Snape. The device was a tiny magical recording device made to look like a pestle. Severus who bought such things regularly was then tricked into purchasing it. Intent being important. Placing the item in his bag of his own free will after purchasing it under the same conditions meant that it moved into the Fidelius area un-regarded in the bottom of his potions bag.

The watchers could not listen in to what was said while he was inside but every time the man left they were able to receive a transmitted recording of what happened in the house. They also got some interesting recordings of Narcissa and Severus' times together. Hearing and seeing how unenthused Narcissa was during those times ended the last lingering crush of one particular Berserker.