Siege of the Sues

Wormtail sighed. He had a bottle of good beer, the Wizarding Wireless network was on, all the girls were asleep, and he was watching the sun rise. Not only that, but the Dark Lord was in an uncommonly good mood. Yes, he reflected, life was good when the plans were running smoothly. He sipped his beer and wondered if the Dark Lord would let him take a vacation after this. They'd be cleared to take over Britain, but it was pretty rainy here. Maybe they could dominate the Bahamas next.

A thump and a bout of swearing in the next room knocked him out of his reverie. He sighed and heaved himself up, wondering who had just fallen into the fireplace.

Mione was righting herself and dusting off ashes. "You could clean this stupid chimney sometime, you know," she said sullenly.

"Let's not go into the housekeeping detail around here. What's the problem?"

Mione rolled her eyes. "The problem is Professor Snape."

"Oh, no." Wormtail panicked. It was by now his natural reaction to anything and everything. "Don't tell me he's taken up knitting sweaters for the poor or something."

"No." Mione pouted. "He's all super depressed, and I had to go take a note to him or something this morning, and he was all crying and said he didn't wanna come back here or something, he was too sad."

"Lord." The plan had backfired. "Uh...what did you tell him?"

"I showed him some stuff in my journal that I write when I get depressed, about how life is like this big sucking gaping hole of nothingness and then you die." She shrugged. "I think it cheered him up some."

Wormtail nodded. Snape was back to normal, then, if a little more vocal about it than usual. "What else is going on?"

"Ummm...oh, Harry dumped Keira."

"WHAT??"

"Yeah, she said she got really mad at his stupid friend Ron and she started turning ugly because she's half veela and stuff. So she's all hanging on Draco now to make Harry jealous, but it's not working, and he's not friends with Draco anymore either." She patted the kitten charm hanging around her neck. "And I saw with this necklace that Draco doesn't really like her either, and he's going to dump her and stuff..."

Mione rattled on about relationships at Hogwarts, but Wormtail's mind was racing. They'd lost Potter. This was not good. His friend Ron was apparently able to fight their power. Also not good. Keira was half veela. That didn't make any sense, but he knew better than to question it. He hadn't heard from the Malfoy twins since he'd talked to them about Lilac Livingston. Nothing was good.

"Okay, Mione," he said, mustering up all his courage. "I need you to stay with the girls here. Let them know that I said you're in charge for right now. I have a job to do."

"Wormtail!" A voice called from down the hall. "Who's there? Is it daddy's little girl? Did you miss daddy, huh, sweetheart?"

"And above all, don't say a single word to him," Wormtail told Mione as he raced out the door.