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The cloaked and hooded wizard huddled in the corner, trembling before the other wizard who stood before him. |
"I don’t want to be an oathbreaker," the man whimpered. "I don’t want to swear falsely. The consequences to my family could be terrible." |
"You must choose between loyalty to a blood-traitor or loyalty to your rightful lord," the other wizard said in a cold voice. "We all face difficulties in life. The repercussions will pass eventually." |
The hooded man whimpered again. "My son, my lord. I can’t ask that of my son. He’s barely out of boyhood." |
"I care not what you tell your son," Rodolphus Lestrange said, waves of contempt rolling off his tongue. "Don’t tell him the full truth, if you like. Make him an unwitting tool, if you’re so damned worried about broken oaths." |
"I just don’t want my son to betray a friend. It’s... wrong." |
"Your son’s "friend’ is hardly worth any loyalty... but it doesn’t matter. I want it done by whatever means. There is treason afoot. The damned Longbottoms, forming an alliance with Dumbledore, along with those fucking traitors in Godric’s Hollow... the blood-traitor Lady Riddle, seeking out alliances with all the nati... |
The hooded wizard gasped. |
"Yes," Lestrange said, leaning in. "I believe that Lord Abraxas is manipulating his own father into doing his bidding. It is possible that Lord Black is part of it. I stand with his high lordship. Do you?" |
The wizard twisted the cloth of his wide sleeves in his hands. "Of course," he finally said. |
"Then prove it. Swear the oath, pass the information to your son, and get that spell brought down that we can move forward." |
The hooded wizard swallowed hard as he nodded. |
Tom lay on his bed at Hogwarts brooding. His ritual on the first of May had certainly borne fruit; all of his Lords of Beltane—even more appropriate, he thought—had convinced their families to swear pacts with his mother except for Wilkes. The alliance with that family was probably inevitable, too. In that regard, he h... |
However, everything else seemed to be stagnant. He had made no progress toward finding the Chamber of Slytherin in the school. He had not been able to read any additional books in his family library, nor had his friends. When they were visiting him over the summer, he had told them to try to read the books that his mot... |
Is it that they are about the history of a family that is related to Slytherin? Tom wondered. And after Slytherin departed the school, the remaining Founders eliminated those references? Some of them are about Slytherin himself, too. Or is it that some of them talk about the legend of Arthur in a way that’s highly unfl... |
He was also increasingly annoyed with Hermione. She was being very stubborn, and Tom felt that what had been a principled stand, albeit one that he disagreed with for pragmatic reasons—"you may not touch me until you apologize"—had become something more hostile and personal. He still smarted at her reaction to his ques... |
Does she? he thought. She also seemed to be actively against his ambitions now, instead of merely thinking them dangerous or objecting to the way that he treated her in order to gain allies for them. He did not forget that she had told him in that same conversation to stop talking about the Chamber of Slytherin and his... |
Tom could not think of a satisfactory answer. To his mind, Hermione was acting very much like an opponent. Two years ago, she had been so dutiful, so instinctively loyal to her betrothed—even if she had barely known him then—that she would deliberately get herself placed in his Hogwarts House despite it being not a gre... |
The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole. |
"Oh, Percy!" Molly Weasley exclaimed, throwing her arms around her favorite son. "I’m so proud of you!" |
Percy Weasley—Sir Percival—awkwardly hugged his mother in return, patting her back. "Thank you, Mother." |
"This changes everything!" she exclaimed. |
He smiled thinly. "I am the newest knight," he said slowly. "I don’t want to make too much of the position." |
"That may be, but you are also a wizard—I would wager the only knight with magic," she declared. "That matters. I am sure that he will take notice of you very quickly and you will rise past the Muggle knights in no time." |
Percy smiled again. "I hope so." |
"Whom to tell, whom to tell," she said to herself, gazing around the room thoughtfully. "The Longbottoms, certainly." |
"Yes," Percy said. "What is the code they use for us? "Robins’?" |
"It is, and you have brought back such valuable nourishment for our cause," she declared. "Now we just need Bill to return...." |
"I hope he can come back with more than goblins." |
"So do we all, my dear." Molly Weasley turned her head sharply at the sound of scurrying. "Another one?" she said, scowling at the sight of a rat’s tail disappearing into a hole in the wall. "One would think that the owl would catch it." |
"Mother, Errol is too old to catch much of anything. I intend to buy another owl, though, when I leave." |
Hermione rose from the table, her robes falling in smooth, silken lines down her form. She was going to another Friends of the Founders meeting, and Ginevra had told her that this one would feature some important news about her own family. She wondered what it might be. One brother was trying to negotiate with goblins ... |
Walking quickly, he reached her and took her arm firmly. She whirled around to face the person who had accosted her and found herself staring into a pair of dark, familiar, and very angry eyes. |
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked him. |
"Are you going to another meeting with Potter?" he snarled. |
She recoiled in a rush of sudden anger. "I am," she snapped, yanking her arm away from him. "What of it?" |
"I asked you this once, and I will ask you again now: Whose side are you on?" His voice was low and dangerous, almost inaudible even to her. |
"I am on the side of people who treat me as I deserve," she said, matching his tone, glaring at him. "People who don’t grab me in the Great Hall as if I am an enemy." |
"You aren’t an enemy," he said slowly, his voice still very quiet. "You’re just refusing to see certain things, and so is Potter. Their families are up to something—" |
"If you really believe that, then why don’t you come to a meeting yourself and try to deduce what you think it is?" |
Tom considered that. "Perhaps I will." He thought for another moment. "Yes. I’ll do just that." He offered her his arm, this time in a gentlemanly manner. Reluctantly she took it. |
Hermione made her way to the seventh floor. It felt odd to make this walk with Tom, but she was both relieved and righteously satisfied that it was finally happening. He would surely see for himself that the Friends—her friends—were not up to anything untoward. Perhaps this would be the beginning of a reconciliation be... |
They reached the Come-and-Go Room. Hermione gazed at the expanse of wall, thinking of the group. In a moment, the outline appeared, then the door itself. She took the handle and opened it, revealing the meeting room and all of her familiar associates. There was Harry, surprise evident on his face at the sight of Tom. L... |
"Riddle—that is, Lord Thomas," Harry corrected himself at once, coming to the door. "Welcome. I am so glad you joined us this evening." He gave Hermione a smile of real pleasure, apparently convinced that they had resolved their differences. |
"Just a minute," said Ron Weasley, petulance in his voice. "If Lavender and I had to sign that parchment, so does he. He should not get an exception because he’s noble." |
"Sign a parchment?" Tom repeated, his gaze shifting at once to Hermione. |
"Yes," Harry said, as Neville Longbottom brought it. "Everyone has to sign it if they attend our meetings. It says—" |
Tom’s eyes had already fixed upon one signature in particular. "Hermione signed this?" he sputtered. |
Her heart sank. "It was ages ago!" she exclaimed. "It only means that we won’t tell Malfoy allies about the group—" |
Tom jerked his arm away from her and stared at her in outrage. "You signed a loyalty oath?" He gazed at the offending parchment. "That bears a hex! You took a magically binding loyalty oath to these people—" He stared at each member of the group in turn, disgust blossoming on his face, culminating with a glare at her t... |
No one dared speak. Hermione felt like crying, but she was not sure if it was from sadness or anger—or both at once. Well aware that the others were avoiding looking at her, she made her way across the room to a chair and sat down. |
A catty snicker broke the silence. Hermione turned around to face the blonde girl—Lavender, Ronald Weasley had said was her name—who had uttered it. Ron took her arm and smirked. |
"Erm... good evening to everyone," Harry said, ascending to the front of the room. He exchanged a quick, sympathetic glance with Hermione. "We have a new member tonight, Lavender Brown. A special welcome to her." He cleared his throat. "And now, Ginevra Weasley has a report to give the group about her older brothers." |
Ginevra rose. "Brother," she corrected with a smile. "Just one of them—so far." She took her place behind the podium and gazed out. "My brother Percy—Percival—has been knighted by His Majesty the King. He is spending some time with our family, but shortly, after Yule and Christmas, he is going to leave to begin his ser... |
There was a smattering of congratulations. "What lord is he going to serve?" Ernest Macmillan asked. |
Ginevra looked uncomfortable. "I’m sorry—they told me, and Ron, by owl. I don’t actually know that part. They, my parents, also said that the news must not go any farther than this group, which is sworn to secrecy, of course. They are concerned that the family could be targeted if it were widely known." |
"Is he going to war?" |
Ginevra grimaced. "I don’t know. He may be." |
"But what purpose does it serve for wizards to fight Muggles’ wars?" Macmillan exclaimed. "I apologize, Miss Weasley, and you too, Ronald—no doubt this is a great thing for your brother." |
"I don’t know if it has anything to do with our group," she said, flustered. "But it does raise the profile of my family, and anything that helps our families must be good." |
"That’s true," he said, mollified. "Well—Godspeed to him. At least he can protect himself against the Muggles’ weapons with magic." |
As she took her seat again, Hermione thought about what she had just heard. She could not pinpoint how, but that report had unsettled her in some intangible way. What if Tom was right? she thought uncomfortably. That sure sounds as if the older Weasleys are hiding something. Sir Percival must be doing something that co... |
As in the previous meeting, they had a period of magic practice. Hermione enjoyed this part. It helped her with her own goal of achieving mastery at the end of her fourth year at Hogwarts, the same time that Tom was expecting to be acclaimed a master—though it would be five years for him. She felt that she was getting ... |
After that, the young people mingled. Hermione quickly attached herself to Luna, who approached her sympathetically. Luna was peculiar, but she often said exactly the right thing, and this was no exception. |
"I’m very sorry about Lord Thomas," she said. "He should be kinder to you." |
"I agree," Hermione said unhappily. |
"It’s a shame that he was not here for Ginevra’s report," Luna continued. "I think it is all very suspicious, don’t you? Not Ginevra herself, but her parents’ secrecy." |
"Watch what you say about my family," snarled a male voice. Hermione and Luna turned to face Ron Weasley, who was hand-in-hand with Lavender. |
"Oh, hello, Ronald," Luna said. "I only meant that it was odd that they didn’t tell her. Do you know what it means, then?" |
"It means just what she said," he replied. "Lord Malfoy would target my family. He grants titles to wizards and witches, right? He was the viceroy for all things related to the magical population. So if they went above him, to the Muggle king himself, he would not like that." |
"Perhaps not," she agreed, "but he too is subject to the Muggle king. There is nothing wrong with what your brother did. And besides, could they truly keep it a secret from him for the rest of your brother’s life?" |
Emboldened, Hermione spoke up in support of Luna. "She makes a good point. How could your brother and your parents keep it a secret indefinitely? There must be more planned." |
"So what if there is?" he said defensively. "We are all enemies of Malfoy, here... aren’t we?" |
Hermione stepped forward, her eyebrows narrowed. "Do not ever insinuate that I would be an ally of Armand Malfoy. On the day I first met him, he humiliated me by making me perform wandless magic on command and then denying me admission to this school. He tried to keep me out of Hogwarts even after I was betrothed to To... |
Ron was silenced for a moment, but then he recovered. "Yes, I know about your "betrothal,’ of course." He patted Lavender’s arm. "Riddle has mocked my family for renouncing their title when Malfoy first came to the country, but the advantage of that is that we don’t have to marry people who don’t like us for political ... |
Hermione raised her wand. Furiously, unhappily, she cast a charm to summon several robins into existence—not real robins, but magical similes. They were good enough. With another swish of her wand and a silent curse, she sent the birds speeding at Ron and Lavender, their sharp beaks out. As the smug young couple fought... |
Weasley couldn’t be right, could he? |
Tom was furious. He paced back and forth in the bedroom, reflecting on what he had just learned. Hermione had sworn a loyalty oath! She had sworn a vow of secrecy about the Friends of the Founders—supposedly one that pertained only to Malfoy allies, but if that were really true, then why had she never told him about th... |
Tom had struggled for some time with Hermione’s part-Norman ancestry, but eventually he had decided that people could not help their birth, that she was part-English as well, and that the real problem was with Norman lords who stole the seats of the rightful English nobles and then proceeded to oppress the English peop... |
Mother knows that we have been intimate, he thought. I hope this theory is wrong. I hope that Hermione’s allegiance to this group has nothing to do with her ancestry, because an allegiance based on that will be very hard to change. God knows I know about that. But if it’s right, then I can’t possibly marry her. I will ... |
It may not be true, he reminded himself. I should not assume it is. He realized that he needed, somehow, to find out... but how? Hermione could block his Legilimency. If he asked her, she would be deeply affronted. She certainly wouldn’t admit it. How could he find out? |
If I can somehow find out what this group is doing, then that might answer it for me, he thought. Maybe if I could corner one of the others for Legilimency... or eavesdrop.... |
Tom sighed and ran his hands through his black hair. He would have to do that. It was distasteful, in a way, but in his view, it was unavoidable. He smoothed his hair and walked over to his desk, where the notes and bottled memories from his own private meetings lay concealed in a drawer. He opened it and took them out... |
The Wilkes family still has not sworn a pact with my mother, he thought. Perhaps I should look elsewhere for disloyalty. A push first, though. He rose from the chair and went to the common room to find Rob Wilkes. |
He met the wizard halfway down the corridor for the boys’ dormitories. Wilkes was excited, waving a letter that he had apparently received by owl. |
"Riddle! I have great news," he exclaimed. |
Tom paused in the hallway. "And what is that, Wilkes? Quietly, please." |
"Or silently," Wilkes said, grinning as he passed the letter to Tom for him to read. |
Tom accepted it and began to scan it quickly. His face lit up as he read the scrawls of Wilkes’s father, Raymond. What an incredible coincidence! he thought. This ambition really is charmed, even after summer has ended. He recalled the beautiful image of the crown-like shape ascending the Beltane flames. He returned th... |
"The alliances are complete," Wilkes observed. |
"They are," Tom agreed, "and they are going to change everything." He touched the medallion on his robes, changing it from a solid black face to the Celtic Triquetra. A frown passed over his face at that. He drew his wand, pointed it at the object, and—his brow furrowed in concentration—murmured a lengthy spell. The ti... |
Hermione was miserable. Part of her mind assured her that Ron Weasley was merely being childish and cruel because he had taken a dislike to her—a dislike that seemed to be based in envy—but then she remembered that fit that Tom had thrown upon seeing the list of signatures. He has already suggested before that he think... |
Then, too, there was the possibility that Tom was correct about the Friends’ families. What was Ginevra’s brother doing as a new knight, and why had her family not told her such basic details as whom he would be serving and where? Was it really just as Ron had said, that Armand Malfoy would be offended that a wizard ha... |
Could Ginevra’s brother have deceived him about the fact that his family would not swear to Malfoy? Hermione wondered. That would certainly explain wanting to keep it quiet. If Malfoy found out about this knighthood and told the king about that bit of family history, it might lead to big trouble for the Weasleys—but on... |
But based on what she currently knew and deduced, Tom was not correct that the agenda was opposed to him. He wanted Malfoy gone too. There was no reason that Hermione knew of for why they should not be allies, and it would make Lady Merope’s position much more powerful if they were. |
Was it time for her to swallow her own pride and make amends with Tom? She considered it for a brief moment before deciding against it. She had done nothing to him. He had treated her in a very inappropriate way for any witch, but especially for the woman he was supposed to marry. He had continued for several months to... |
She rose from her chair and left her bedchamber, passing through the Slytherin common room without speaking to anyone. She made her way upstairs to the Great Hall, sure that there would be a few people seated at the tables despite the fact that it was not mealtime. She was correct. There was Harry, and Luna was next to... |
Hermione made sure that they did not seem to be in a personal, private conversation before taking her seat next to them. Luna gazed at her. "Hello, Hermione. You look sad." |
"I’m all right, Luna," she said. |
"It’s because Lord Thomas said those things," she said astutely. "He was very wrong to act that way. He should not say things like that to you at all, but it was especially wrong of him to do it in front of other people." |
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