On the Topic of Hogwarts...

Sandra sat in her study, leaning back in the comfortable chair. It was an antique, Lucius had said, quite valuable. Sandra liked it. It was comfortable and not easily set on fire.

She waved her wand once, and the image of the ministry popped into existence on her desk. Se smiled slightly. Majere should be here any moment now. After the recent "loss" at the ministry, they had much to discuss.

Lazily, Sandra waved her wand, and liquor cabinet popped open. A large bottle of wine floated over to her and thumped solidly onto the table, Sandra inspecting it's label. Her smile grew wider. Bordeaux, France, 1989. Perfect. She deserved a treat.

Vincent had recieved a letter from Sandra two days ago to come to the Malfoy Manor. She had not told him what she wanted to discuss, of course, she couldn't - the order could sometimes intercept these messages. But he had a feeling she wanted to discuss the battle. As no one knew he was a Death Eater, he had refrained from entering the fight. It would be foolish to enter it, he would be removed from Hogwarts the following day. Still, he went, after all, he did have things to discuss with Sandra. The Ministry had been an obvious target, but Sandra had apparently underestimated the order. Hogwarts was clearly a far easier target for the Death Eaters.

He crossed the rooms of the various Malfoys and walked towards the study, where Sandra usually was. He knocked before entering. "Hello Sandra," he said, his eyes quickly sweeping across the room. "I recieved your message." He remained standing where he was, not entering the room until she invited him to.

"Obviously." Sandra said, taking another sip of wine. "Else you would not be here." She motioned for him to enter. "Sit, sit. I'm in a good mood today." She continued studying the projection of the ministry, only looking up one Majere had entered the room. "The battle is over. Tho Order thinks they've won." She smiled, like a cat looking down on a mouse only moments before it pounced. "I so love victories where your opponent thinks they've won. So much more...satisfying."

Vincent went over and sat down opposite to her. "Calling it a battle is a bit of an exaggeration really," Vincent said with a roll of his eyes. "I prefer to call it a minor skirmish really. Considering that we lost no followers, and neither did the Order. The ministry has just become more divided." Vincent didn't exactly see it as a victory though, he saw it as unimportant in the longer run. "Well I'm sure it is, but the thing is, the Wizarding World still thinks that we have suffered another defeat, even if that is not true. It prevents us from getting more support, and even morale from the Death Eaters supporters is dropping," he informed her calmly.

Snadra chuckled. "Majere, Majere. My dear man. Your smart. Can't you see? It was a huge victory for us." She sat up a little straighter in her chair and eyed Majere. "Let me show you. You see, the Order 'won' the battle of the Ministry. They then proceeded to conquer the ministry and insert their own people. Namely, their own person as the minister as magic." She took a sip of wine and set it down on the table carefully. "Now then. Since they essentially control the wizarding world, they'll be held responsible for anything that goes wrong. Like, I don't know, Hogwarts falling under control of the Death Eaters."

Vincent nodded slowly at what Sandra had said. He hadn't thought of it that way. "Well thats great," he replied slowly. "I did want to discuss that subject. Being the headmaster, I could expel all aurors from the campus, making it quite easy for us to take the castle."

"Exactly." Sandra said, putting her wand on the table and taking another sip of wine. "Listen Majere...or may I call you Vincent?" She asked, finally looking the Hogwarts Headmaster fully in the eyes. "I believe you to be a very capable wizard, and I want you behind me. You're respected in the magical community, and you have the magical firepower to back yourself up. In short, you're an invaluable ally." She tilted her head to one side, inspecting him for any change in posture or expression. "But I'll be blunt. I don't know if I can trust you. You're dangerous." She shook her head and leaned back in her chair. "But this is an ideal opportunity, and It will take everything we both have to pull it off correctly. I can't be watching my back constantly if I'm going to get this done." She touched her wand lightly. "So I need your word. I have...several ideas on how to run Hogwarts. How to control the students. But if you aren't 110 percent behind me on everything I won't be able to do it. Her eyes narrowed and her fingers crept along her wand slowly, calmly, almost like a spider moving across a desk. "If you have any doubts, say them now, for your own sake. And if you hold out on me, I will flay you alive."

Vincent shrugged. "You may call me that," he said, not really caring. He was glad she was getting to the point quickly though. "I know you can't trust me. Frankly, I don't trust you much either. However, for now, we both have similar goals. We both serve the dark lord, and as long as we have that in common, we are on the same side, and I won't act against you," he said firmly. Vincent of course had no intentions of doing anything to Sandra. As far as he knew, she was loyal to the dark lord. But if he found out otherwise, then he would of course act against her. Vincent did not feel aligned to anyone really, besides the dark lord. He didn't consider Sandra his ally really, just someone who could help him achieve his own goals. Vincent watched her hand slowly move towards her wand, but he took the threat calmly, just smiling slightly in reply. "Like I said, as long as your loyal to the dark lord, we are on the same page. So enough of this, tell me what are your brilliant ideas for Hogwarts?"After a couple seconds he added. "And I guess I haven't told you yet have I? The ministry, aka the order, are planning on taking a ministry official, meaning an order puppet, into Hogwarts. Or they will remove me as headmaster, by force." Matt Lestrange had earlier told him this after the Minestrial Ball. He had devised the plan soon after. In order to get protection for the campus, he would have to bring the Death Eaters in. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Sandra smiled. "Let them try. The Order is so...simplistic. We can simply use the children as human shields. And of course we'll ramp up the defenses so they'll have a hard time even getting in." She sipped a bit of wine and waved her hand through the hologram of the ministry, picking up her wand and creating four floating blue circles. "My plans for controlling the students are simple. First and foremost is your Imperium Squad. They'll act as our police, punishing the trouble makers and rabble rousers with extreme prejudice." She tapped one of he floating circles, and the words Imperium Squad wrote themselves inside it. "The next part is our eyes and ears. The people who will report others, rat out their classmates for us. They'll have to be persuaded individually, but there are always those selfish enough to hurt someone else for their own gain." She tapped another circle, and Spies was written into it. "The next two parts are tied together. We have to control the quickly growing half breeds in Hogwarts. I propose restricting the flow of Wolfsbane potion and Ministry provided blood to bend the werewolves and vampires to our will. Without the potion and blood, they'll frenzy...and we'll put them down." She shrugged. "One or two might have to die, but the others will get the picture. Do what we say, or you'll die....in the name of safety."

Vincent nodded at her plans, she had clearly thought about it thoroughly. The Imperium Squad he had handpicked as the best students in the school, who could easily handle the other scum. He didn't particularly agree with the growing number of half breeds, that didn't seem like a great danger to him. As long as they got what they needed, why would they rebel? But it didn't matter to him much. "Thats all quite good, but I'm surprised that you haven't really touched upon the muggleborns in the school. What do you intend to do with them?" asked Vincent. He didn't really care what she did with them, as long as they weren't expelled from Hogwarts.