It’s much harder to be at the Manor without Theo. Now he can’t let his guard down for a moment, and Voldemort is still there, making the atmosphere even more tense and unpleasant. The Dark Lord calls regular meetings in the drawing room, where he rants about the importance of blood purity and his own destiny as the One who will save the wizarding world from the taint of Muggle blood. Sometimes the lectures last for hours, and even Draco finds it hard to maintain an appearance of interest in the subject. One evening, Selwyn falls asleep during Voldemort’s speech, and he is awakened with a cruciatus cast by the Dark Lord. It’s a warning. Voldemort is dangerously unstable, and Draco does his best to convey that to Tonks in a few coded words.