"What is it that you want Loughness to do in this," Regulus bit out.
Though he spoke to Grindelwald, her cousin's hard glare was on the wall to the right of the blonde German's head, Bellatrix noted. She felt a pang of sympathy for what Regulus must be going through, considering he'd already lost both of his own parents.
"He will be working to assist Wulfric's efforts. Covering his tracks, as it were," Gellert said. "Wulfric will directly engage and strike the killing blow. Loughness will make sure that she stays dead with the unique combination of his wizard and elf magics."
Well, that sounded relatively safe, Bellatrix thought.
"We all have to do our part, and the brat wouldn't appreciate being sheltered," Rodolphus said casually.
Bellatrix felt her lips twitch as she recalled Loughness bragging when he was around seven years old that he'd be a great Dark Lord someday to surpass the great ones of ancient history.
The boy completely disregarded Dumbledore, who was partly to blame for his own existence, though this did not win him greatness apparently. Nor was Loughness particularly impressed with Voldemort who had run roughshod through the family as well as the entire wizarding world. Not even Grindelwald, who traveled in the family's social circle, counted as a great, though Loughness had expressed a very strong interest in the Elder wand itself. Regulus and Kreacher just as strongly admonished him for this interest, but Loughness remained singularly unimpressed by the cautionary words of his parents.
"And if we refuse to allow him to participate," Regulus asked darkly.
Grindelwald shrugged. "I have my opinions, but that hardly matters. He is old enough to legally make his own choices, and he's surely heard about everything from Wulfric already so he will do what he wishes, I should think."
Bella gave a nod of silent understanding on that one. It only stood to reason. As Dumbledore was like some father figure to Snape and Snape was close friends with Regulus, Snape and Dumbledore's children had grown up with Regulus's own.
Loughness and Hydra had grown up playing with Wulfric Dumbledore and Serpensortia Snape. There were likely no secrets between them. Growing up with half elf children as playmates was what had made Wulfric open enough to date a goblin, Bellatrix thought. That or he had his father's freakish overly accepting blood to a fault. He was darker than Albus, though, and goblins weren't nearly as bad as Muggles. They might be ugly and greedy, but one didn't have to hide their magical abilities in front of them.
Grindelwald sighed, gaze resting on Regulus in mild resentment. "Do you really think I'd allow anything to happen to your family, Regulus," he asked tiredly.
Somehow Bellatrix almost felt a little guilty, and she wasn't the one with the bloody problem. This caused her to shoot an annoyed glare in Regulus's direction. Voldemort could make you believe he cared, but if he got angry or something else became more pressing, that could shift in an instant. Even then, he could make you feel terrified, and as if it was all your fault. The suddenly tired, worn, and sad look in Grindelwald's eyes was nothing like that, and it touched Bella on a level of humanity that Voldemort never lowered himself to. If he'd remained a god, that may have been alright, but he'd sunk lower than a demon and tried to drag them with him.
Letting out a breath, she shook herself and turned to Gellert. "He doesn't mean..." Why was she bothering to defend Regi when he could defend himself? Probably to make bloody Grindelwald feel better, she realized.
Of course they'd tried to make the Dark Lord feel better as well, but that was more out of a scrambling terror that one not get themselves smited by their angry bloody god… This was different. Gellert was under a lot of pressure, and it wasn't as if any of them wanted to step into his shoes on this one, herself included.
Gellert gave her a strained smile as he shrugged.
"Of course I don't believe you would intend for anything to happen to my family," Regulus told Gellert tightly. "I simply feel that you consider getting rid of Delphini to be the most relevant goal, and rightfully so. If lives are lost in the process...well, you are accustomed to war. I, however, am tired of it. Of course I see that a world that Delphini runs will not be a safe or pleasant one, but...I can't lose my child! I can't."
Gellert sighed again. "I have come to learn more than most how valuable family is. You are my friend, and I could never take yours from you. Not even for any great and worthy goal. Loughness is as safe as my own parents or myself. Of course I want her dead for the safety of us all, but I do not wish to die to achieve this goal. While I only had myself to look out for when it came down to life and death in my younger days, I had enough practice at keeping myself alive to learn a few tricks when it comes to expanding to my close circle. In other words, it will be fine."
"Perhaps some of Merlin's artifacts could help Loughness in whatever he shall be doing to assist Wulfric," Kreacher said. As he spoke, the elf rose from the loveseat where he sat at Regulus's side and wandered over to the table where Merlin and Nimue's artifacts were spread. He regarded the lot with a shrewd, intense interest.
That sort of behavior, among other things, was what had always set him far apart from, and above, other elves in Bellatrix's eyes.
Gellert smirked in satisfaction. "Well, at least one of you is making himself useful."
Taking the not so subtle hint, Regulus rose and joined Kreacher at the table where everyone else was gathered. This turned the session back toward artifacts and away from shrinking.
"I think I'll make certain all the other wands aren't blasting rods as well, just in case," Regulus said with an amused twitch to his lips.
He turned his attention to the other five wands on the table, holding each and silently casting toward the far wall of the room. He kept far out of range of everyone, but none of the wands made the odd explosion the one Rabastan tried had done.
"Only one blasting rod then," Regulus concluded as he lowered the last wand. "I do get the impression some of these have other specialties, though."
"Why don't you keep them for a bit, and see if you can discover what they are," Gellert suggested.
The blonde had seemingly gotten over his reluctance to share, Bellatrix noted.
Regulus nodded. "I can do that. I will work with them for several hours a day and report any breakthroughs to you. Of course if a wand has a specialty that would help you I will have it sent to you directly."
"Thank you," Gellert replied.
Meanwhile, Kreacher silently studied several chunks of raw clear quartz and smoky crystal quartz. They weren't jewelry, being nearly fist sized, and far too thick and short to serve as wands.
"What do you think those do, Kreacher," Bellatrix asked.
The elf looked up slowly, a thoughtful frown on his face. "Kreacher doesn't know, but he gets the impression that each once had its own leather bag. Or perhaps he just feels it should be thus now." He shrugged. "As odd as it may sound, Kreacher senses the strong impression of a soft leather bag around each crystal. Almost as if it was once there and left an imprint."
"Wait, you aren't usually psychic, are you," Blaise asked, and Kreacher shook his head.
"Kreacher doesn't even know why the idea occurred to him," the elf admitted. "Blaise is correct. Kreacher is not at all psychic as a rule, but the impression was very strong. Perhaps Kreacher was only being fanciful." His expression grew embarrassed as his gaze dropped.
Blaise's full lips twitched skeptically. "Doubtful, as that's no more in your character than psychic is. I think you're picking up on something. If the crystals are made for scrying tools, or no, spying tools, they could imprint anything close to them."
Gellert turned to Blaise, eyes suddenly alert with an eager interest. "You mean the crystals were spelled to pick up images of whatever they were exposed to?"
Blaise nodded. "Possibly."
"Brilliant!" Gellert's now bright smile flashed from Blaise to Kreacher.
"Perhaps those under Merlin's command planted the crystals in the pathway of the Saxons, or even in their camps, and linked them to other scrying crystals," Blaise mused and Gellert nodded enthusiastically.
"Or these are the crystals that are linked to the Saxon ones in order to spy on them," Kreacher mused. "If the crystals originally placed with the Saxons are the ones in the leather bags that Kreacher was seeing."
"That could very well be," Blaise agreed, nodding.
"Kreacher thinks it would be more difficult to retrieve any crystals once they managed to get them into Saxon territory," Kreacher continued.
"Unless there were battles and the crystals led them to the proper place," Gellert pointed out.
"Ah," Kreacher nodded. "There is that."
"So the point is these crystals could be useful if we planted them somewhere to spy on Delphini," Rabastan asked and Gellert nodded.
"Of course."
"Well, that ought to be easy," Bellatrix said drily.
"It's merely an option, and we've had little luck spying on her with other means," Gellert replied with a slight shrug. "We can place them in areas she's likely to go, at least."
"If that doesn't work and we aren't able to use them for spying on her, we could try to see what else they hold from the past in case it's useful. Perhaps the Saxons used tactics we'd find interesting," Blaise speculated.
"Doubtful," Rodolphus said. "Mostly they were Muggles. Merlin was helping the Muggle war lord Arthur, remember. He was helping to fight a mostly Muggle war, not a wizarding one."
Bellatrix smirked. Roddy had stayed awake in that old ghost's history class after all!
"Yes, but mostly is the operative word. The Saxons had a few wizards as well," Blaise pointed out.
"At that time it was druid wizard against druid wizard nearly as much as it was Muggle against Muggle. The druids who betrayed Merlin did so for power, just as people have done throughout human history," Gellert said in agreement with Zabini.
"So if these crystals can spy on Delphini, how will we know what they are seeing if we don't have the crystals that match up to them," Bellatrix asked. "If they're buried in some Saxon grave, that's hardly helpful to us."
"That's just it, though," Blaise said, reaching to run a slender dark skinned finger over one of the darker crystals in the lot. "There are six here. Three clear quartz and three smoky quartz. Perhaps they are three sets. Perhaps the three clear are connected to the three smoky, reflecting what they see."
He frowned thoughtfully. "The trick, though, will be discovering the spell to activate them. Without this, I doubt they will fully reflect what its match is seeing. Merlin wouldn't make it too easy, or his enemies could too easily steal information."
"You are so bloody amazing right now," Gellert said, giving Zabini a lustful look that had Bellatrix making a disgusted face.
"This weekend, Blaise and I shall test the crystals, and if they work as my boy seems to believe, you three can place them in certain Muggle places of import for a start," Gellert said, turning to the Lestranges as he spoke.
"Because we just so love venturing out among the Muggles," Bellatrix said drily, and Gellert grinned.
"Exactly," he agreed happily. "Besides...better you than me."
"How are we supposed to know places of Muggle import anyway," Rodolphus asked with a grumble.
"Now that's a reasonable question for a change," Gellert said with a chuckle that caused Rod's frown to deepen.
Apparently talk of venturing out among the Muggles did not put him into a joking mood. It looked as if they'd all be miserable together, Bellatrix thought darkly.
"If all goes well, I'll have all the addresses for you Monday morning with directions," Gellert assured.
"We can hardly bloody wait," Rabastan muttered.