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Tom gaped at them. "Dumbledore had a part in it, then. That was his phoenix. I’ve seen it before." He glanced at Hermione in delighted surprise. "Dumbledore has switched sides." |
For the first time since they arrived, Neville and Ginny smiled. |
"You are very welcome here," Hermione assured them. "Now, please, take your rest. There are plenty of rooms, and we have this castle—and Parselhall—secured. Thank you so much for offering your support." She gazed at them seriously. "Would you like to see Father Alphard Black? He isn’t here, but many of his relatives are. We could summon him." |
Neville blushed pink. "No," Ginny answered for them both. "We want to finish Hogwarts. I think it will be all right." |
"Bellatrix has to go," Tom said to Hermione when they were alone in the bedchamber they had temporarily claimed. "God knows what the Weasleys will try to tell the Muggle king about wizards and witches now." |
"Witches in particular," Hermione said cynically. "It would certainly be a targeted appeal to the king: a woman, committing evil acts and murdering at will because she wants to eliminate all competitors to her daughter." |
"I am also worried about what they may tell him about me," he confessed. "I don’t regret what I’ve done, but... this is very unlucky. I did not anticipate that Malfoy would make an alliance offer to the Weasleys." |
"Nor did I," Hermione said. "I suppose I should have foreseen it. We have decimated the ranks of his sworn vassals. It is a logical ploy. I’m glad that Dumbledore has switched over this, though, even if he had to do it in secret." |
"He is the High Master of Hogwarts," Tom said. "It would have to be in secret. Remember, officially, Malfoy is the rightful High Lord of Wizards. I’m sure the king would strip him of his title and offer royal sanction to our justice if he knew the full truth... but unfortunately, as it stands now, both he and the Weasleys do indeed have royal approval, and we are indeed in rebellion." He scowled. "This must change, but first, Bellatrix has to die. She is not with us, but if those fools believe Malfoy’s lie, then it could get very bad. This has to be done sooner rather than later." |
"I agree," Hermione said. She sighed and plumped the pillow. "I hope that we don’t have to do anything to Adelaide, though." |
"If she has assisted her mother, we will," Tom pointed out. |
Tom and Hermione returned to Parselhall at dawn, leaving the newly raised Lord Bertram Fitz Lestrange nominally in charge of the castle, but actually under Regulus Black’s supervision. Tom was eager to see his home and the rest of his family again, and so was Hermione. With them went Harry and Sirius, the latter somewhat sourly. He seemed to understand that he was going to be strong-armed into the betrothal agreement between their future children whether he liked it or not. |
Severus greeted them somberly. "Welcome home, Lord Regent." |
"All is well here?" Tom asked. |
Severus nodded. "We have a guest waiting to see you. She arrived in the dead of night." |
"Who?" Tom asked. |
"Adelaide Lestrange," Severus replied, a wry grin on his face, enjoying the looks of shock and delight on Tom’s and Hermione’s respective faces. |
They wasted no time. Tom immediately summoned Adelaide to appear before him for questioning under Legilimency. Severus was standing to the side with a bottle of Veritaserum in hand in case she became truculent, but the black-haired girl appeared almost like a different person when she was brought before them. She was thin and vulnerable. She trembled, and her eyes had a haunted, shattered look in them as she spoke. |
"Mother has gone mad," she whispered. "She rejected the offer that you graciously sent, never giving it a moment’s consideration. I wanted to accept it!" she pleaded to Tom, eyes wide. |
Hermione noticed that, even now, she preferred to address herself to Tom. Whether that was because of shame over her treatment of Hermione after Hermione made the abortion potion for her, or whether she regarded Tom as the sole authority due to his sex—or blood—Hermione was not sure. She tried not to let it annoy her too much. This girl had suffered a lot. |
"I wanted to give this person, this cousin, a chance," Adelaide continued. "If he and his brother were raised by the Blacks, how bad could they be? They would be taught magic privately, of course—" |
"And so they were," Hermione assured her. "They are very gentlemanlike." |
"You have seen them?" she asked Tom. |
"They came to Castle l’Etrange to swear their oaths," he said. "The elder, Bertram, has assumed titular authority, though your uncle Lord Regulus Black supervises him for now until he is comfortable in his title. They do indeed know magic, and they were raised to be genteel." He regarded her with a hard stare. "What of your other uncle and aunt?" |
"Lord Lucius and Lady Narcissa wanted it too, but Mother—she forced me to leave! She asserted that I wasn’t in my right mind. And then she went to my uncle Rabastan’s house and murdered him in cold blood!" She gulped for air. "After that, she went to Hogsmeade. It was horrible. She...." The girl blinked, shuddering at the memory. |
Evidently, Bellatrix had not been so merciful to the Longbottoms before she killed them. It was nothing less than Hermione had expected, based on the horrible woman’s existing history with that poor family, but it must have been terrible to witness, whatever it was. "May we offer you some wine?" Hermione asked. |
Adelaide nodded. Severus summoned an elf to bring out a goblet of wine. Once it was in Adelaide’s hand, and she was slowly drinking it, she was able to continue. |
"She tortured them," she blurted out. "I think I saw the man’s mind break. He just suddenly... stopped resisting... and after that, he wasn’t right. His wife finally talked right before she was in the same state. Mother killed them then." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I couldn’t be a part of it any longer." |
"Is your mother planning to attack Castle l’Etrange?" Tom asked. |
Adelaide nodded. "She means to do it tomorrow. I knew that so many of my family, the Blacks, were there. I wanted to warn them—and you," she added belatedly. |
"Does she have anyone with her?" |
"Not "anyone,’ exactly," Adelaide said. "Not... people." |
"What do you mean?" Severus asked, suddenly alarmed. |
"There is a type of magic that the Egyptians developed long ago," Adelaide said, her mouth twisting in disgust. "A magic that can animate corpses. It makes them almost impossible to defeat, since they can take wounds and even the Killing Curse without serious harm. She has done it to her victims." |
Tom, Hermione, and Severus were appalled. "That is—horrible," Hermione burst out. "I have read about that. They can be destroyed with cursed fire, but will our allies at Castle l’Etrange realize that until it’s too late? We have to warn them today." She turned to Severus, who instantly took out a piece of parchment and began drafting a letter to send to Regulus. |
"My mother," Adelaide whimpered, realizing what was likely to happen. She reached imploringly, not for Tom, but for Hermione, to the latter’s shock. "Please. Please tell them not to kill her—unless...." She trailed off miserably. |
"Unless they have to? You must accept that they may have to," Tom said. "She may force a duel to the death." |
Adelaide sighed in defeat and loss. |
Castle l’Etrange. |
Regulus Black was surprised at Neville Longbottom’s reaction to the news and warning from Parselhall. Rather than expressing the horror that he must feel, Neville had become resolute. |
"I will fight her," he said to Regulus and the newly minted Fitz Lestrange brothers. "They were my parents. I won’t let her defile their bodies without consequence." |
The wizards exchanged uneasy glances. "Master Longbottom," Regulus said diplomatically, "she is a very experienced combatant and will certainly use magic more violent than you would be willing—" |
"You’re wrong," Neville said quietly. "I have no inclination to hold back against her." He paused. "Between us, Lord Regulus, I still think Riddle—Lord Thomas—has gone too far, but I understand now." |
Regulus did not argue any further. If the young wizard truly believed that he could use magic as violent as Bellatrix was likely to dole out, then so be it. He had already watched both Longbottom and Miss Weasley spar against some of the others, and he was impressed with their skills. Every skilled wand counted, especially since Riddle had taken the basilisk back to Parselhall when he had left. |
That afternoon, an additional guest came to Castle l’Etrange. Regulus welcomed Adelaide and quickly introduced her to her newfound cousins. Best to let her get to know them, particularly the elder—though if it turned out that she preferred the younger, Regulus was willing to offer his sanction to that match too. He would simply write into the legal documents that Adelaide’s future offspring would be the heirs of the fief after Lord Bertram, whether those heirs were with him or his younger brother. |
Regulus did not want Adelaide to be present for the forthcoming battle, so he told her to stay in her quarters when it happened. It wasn’t that he distrusted her intentions; Riddle had subjected her to Legilimency. She was not coming to the castle to betray them to her mother. However, Regulus was well aware that she should not see the fight. It was cruel to force someone to watch the violent death of a parent, no matter what the parent had done. Adelaide’s loyalties might be tested after such an experience, and there were other factors too. She had never distinguished herself in magical battle, so she would be nearly useless in that regard—but potentially very useful to Bellatrix as a hostage, once things turned against her. |
And Bellatrix was going to be killed. Adelaide might have pleaded to the Riddles to try to spare Bellatrix, but that was flatly impossible now. She had committed murder and was now planning to attack the castle that they held, after rejecting an honorable offer. Her life was forfeit; justice had to be served for what she had done—especially to the Longbottoms, now that Neville was fighting beside them. Failing to avenge their suffering, deaths, and the horrible defilement of their corpses would be an unforgivable slight to him. It was for the best that Adelaide not see that the fighters had no intention of giving Bellatrix the chance to surrender. |
The rift in the Weasley family had widened since Ginny and Neville’s frantic departure. |
"I cannot believe that she would do that!" Molly exclaimed in high dudgeon after her daughter’s disappearance. "She has always been headstrong, but blatant defiance and disobedience like this? From a daughter, especially?" |
Percy nodded importantly. "We can but hope that she has not joined our enemies. Lord Malfoy might call off the bargain if she has done that and he learns." |
"I hope he does!" Ron suddenly burst out. He gaped at his older brother in disbelief and contempt. "I don’t like the fact that she sallied about Hogwarts with Neville all the time either—if you ask me, Hogwarts encourages very unladylike behavior in witches—but Malfoy cannot be trusted! You and Mother should never have agreed to this bargain." |
"Hold your tongue," Percy snapped. |
"No, I won’t," Ron retorted. "This was a stupid thing to agree to. He’s a Malfoy, for Merlin’s sake—the Malfoy! I don’t know what the trick is, but you can mark my words that there is a trick." |
Bill spoke up in agreement. "I think Ron is right," he said, "and I was thinking about something else. Father and I were in the group that put up wards on Castle Grange after the former lord and lady were killed. They were the parents of your former classmate, Ron." |
"I know who they were," Ron said. He scowled. "She married Riddle, who you say is a right piece of work—" |
"She had to marry Riddle," Bill said. |
"No more than Ginny has to marry Draco Malfoy," Ron replied. "Besides, she wanted to. You didn’t see them. I did." |
Bill regarded his younger brother with a very shrewd, and also disdainful, look. "Ronald," he said, "she is married, and apparently happily so. Let it go. You can’t honestly have expected a noble girl to turn to you if she already liked her betrothed—especially if you treated her as you imply you did. If she had been unhappy, and could have put aside her perceptions of duty, she would have looked to a friend, not someone who treated her with contempt." |
Ron turned fiery red. "I never said—" |
"You didn’t have to say anything," Bill replied. "It was obvious. Drop it, Ron, and let’s stay on topic. Father and I went to Castle Grange to protect it after someone attacked it and killed the lord and lady, along with most of their household. According to James Potter, the attackers included a wizard who fits Armand Malfoy’s description." He gazed at his mother and brother Percy with hard, narrowed eyes. "Why did you trust him?" |
"James had that from Regulus Black," Molly said. "That was what he said, that Regulus had come to Godric’s Hollow to tell Sirius this, and James overheard. Regulus is a known ally of the Riddles. Why should we trust his word of what happened? Bellatrix is his sister-in-law," she added. "How do we know that she wasn’t the attacker, but he blamed it on Lord Malfoy to protect his family?" |
"If Bellatrix attacked that castle, then she would not be doing the Riddles’ bidding now, as Malfoy claimed," Bill shot back. |
Arthur spoke up. "I have been thinking about this too," he said. "Personally, I doubt that Lord Malfoy was honest with us in claiming that Lords Lestrange and Carrow visited Parselhall to offer gifts to the Riddles. But if he was telling the truth, then I suppose it makes a certain kind of sense that Lestrange would then have attacked Castle Grange. Unjust and dishonorable to attack Muggles, of course, but he might have seen it as fair retaliation. However," he added, "I doubt that anything of the kind happened. I suppose it’s possible that they might have claimed such a thing to Lord Malfoy, and he believed it, but I doubt it happened that way—and I agree with Bill. If Bellatrix attacked Castle Grange, she would not be working with the Riddles now. We should not abandon our trustworthy allies for the sake of what is probably the equivalent of leprechaun gold, Molly," he said. |
"But Riddle, though," Molly said. "He sounds like a monster, Arthur!" |
Arthur sighed. "That is the trouble. I don’t know what to do and don’t know which is worse, Riddle or Malfoy." |
"And Ginny may have run off to join him," Percy added. "In fact, she probably did. She has Longbottom with her, and we know that Longbottom is friends with James’s son—who lives with Sirius Black now and definitely fights beside the Riddles. We should attempt to retrieve her before those people summon Father Black to marry her and Longbottom in a foolish, childish act of desperation." |
Bill was very dissatisfied. "Malfoy is not trustworthy," he insisted. "I don’t think Ginny would be safe married to Draco Malfoy. I have never heard anything about the young man himself to suggest that he would harm her, but he is in the power of someone who would not scruple to do her harm. Lord Malfoy has lost many of his men. I think he intends to use us to defeat his enemies and then throw us away—or even kill us all, Ginny included." When Percy and Molly gasped, he continued doggedly, "Either he has no intention of letting her survive long enough to marry Draco, or he would kill her after she had borne a new Malfoy heir. I do not believe for one second that he wants us to be part of his family." |
In the corner, the twins, who had been observing the discussion silently, exchanged a glance. Fred spoke up. "Then we should use him and double-cross him first," he said. |
"How?" Bill said impatiently. "And we are not the ones who are cornered in a wizarding war! Riddle was not doing anything to us. His fight was with Malfoy and his allies. We didn’t need to "use’ Malfoy or anyone else, because we were not fighting! But now, we have named ourselves Riddle’s enemies, and for what?" |
"He has done some terrible things," Percy reminded him. |
"According to Malfoy!" Bill exclaimed. "We already suspect that he was lying—or wrong—about Riddle being allied with Bellatrix. We also suspect that the story about Riddle attacking guests of his castle is false. And even if the rest of his claims are true, what does that matter to us? If he or one of his allies cursed Malfoy’s eye—if his basilisk ate Lestrange—if he cursed Malfoy’s field in an old ritual—and even if he made a Horcrux, why do we care? The first three would be acts taken in war, and the latter only does harm to himself. What is it to us?" |
"Well, it matters to me," Percy said sanctimoniously. "Virtue matters, even if the one person harmed by a wicked act is oneself." |
"And what is virtuous about aligning with a man who thinks anyone who is not a pureblood barely deserves to live? Lord Malfoy started this war, Percy. He and his allies have been harassing and targeting Lady Hermione since she first made her appearance. All she wanted was to participate in wizarding society as three of the Founders of Hogwarts, the people we named our faction for, intended. Malfoy started everything. I think some of you have forgotten who the enemy is." With that, he rose from his seat and walked outside to take a breath of fresh air, leaving the others to think. |
The family owl, Errol, flew to him and alighted on a nearby branch of a tree. Bill regarded the aged owl before taking out a piece of parchment from his belt pouch and writing a letter. He attached it to the owl and stroked its feathers before sending it on its way. |
Castle Parselhall. |
Lord Orion and Lady Walburga Black had come to Parselhall to witness the formal agreement that Sirius signed with Tom. Sirius was visibly unhappy at the entire situation, but the news that Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom had brought had shocked him. |
Then, too, his wife Marlene had a very pertinent piece of news for him when he returned to Parselhall. |
"It cannot be more than a fortnight," she had confided in him, "but I’m certain of it. We have ways of telling much earlier than the Muggles, of course." She had placed a hand proudly over her belly. |
Sirius had sighed. This should be a happy moment, and it was, but it was also heavy with unwanted responsibilities and dire feelings about the future. One of his children would likely be betrothed as a child—much depended on how quickly Lady Hermione had a child herself, and what the sexes of their children were—but a heavy burden now lay on another of Sirius’s future offspring. He had not missed the fact that Dora was very interested in his own friend Remus, and that the interest was returned, albeit with some reluctance on Remus’s part. He knew Remus well enough to know that the reluctance would be overcome eventually. Remus had never been able to stand his ground against him or James. Dora was nominally the heir of the Black family, but Lord Orion would not allow her to remain so if she married a werewolf. That meant that he would have to father the future heir. If the child that Marlene was now carrying did not eventually marry into the Riddle family, he or she would likely be the heir of House Black. His children would be taken away from him and Marlene to be raised as nobles... unless, of course, he gave up his own humble home in Godric’s Hollow and moved in with his blood relatives again. Not his parents, of course—but Regulus. Sirius had a feeling that this was exactly what would happen. It irritated him beyond belief that he had been outmaneuvered and his long-ago decision checkmated. |
He pushed these heavy thoughts out of his mind as he signed the document below the many other signatures present: Tom’s, Hermione’s, his own parents’. He pushed it back at them, scowling. "Here you are," he said icily. "I hope everyone else is satisfied at last." |
Tom accepted the contract. "It’s not that bad, Sirius," he said wryly. |
"You would say that," Sirius replied. "Well, it is done. Let’s hope you are right that this is for the best." |
Castle l’Etrange. |
The defenders of the castle readied themselves at sunrise. The plan that they had agreed upon was for those who knew how to cast cursed fire to do it, and to target the animated bodies while they were still a good distance from the castle. Luring Bellatrix and her unnatural soldiers inside, as they had done to Lestrange’s party, was not practical or safe in this situation. |
Neville had not wanted to be part of that group, much to Regulus’s relief. Much better that he not see the results of the evil deed that Bellatrix had committed. The people who had this task reached the rooftop of the castle soon after waking up, watchful eyes trained on the horizon. |
"I just want to see her," Adelaide pleaded to Regulus. "Maybe I could talk her out of it." |
Regulus looked at Andromeda, who shook her head sadly. "You were unable to talk her out of anything she has done," the woman said to her niece. "Your sentiments are honorable and do you credit, but she has made her choice." |
Adelaide’s eyes widened as the realization struck her. "But that means she will die!" |
Andromeda steered the distraught girl away, urging her toward a parlor. "Adelaide," she said gently, "your mother has done terrible things, and she has shown no remorse for it. Instead, she is attacking a castle that she knows full well her own blood holds. We will certainly attempt to capture her, but even if we succeed at that—which we may not—the people who have the right to decide her justice are Neville Longbottom—" |
"Our ally," Andromeda said, "and our blood. He has that right foremost, but your new betrothed and his brother also have a say, since it is their castle she is attacking. They can be seen as the heirs of your uncle Rabastan, too." Seeing that this was not persuasive to Adelaide, Andromeda changed course. "She is my sister!" she exclaimed. "This doesn’t make me happy either. I grieve for her. I grieve for what she has become, but that happened years ago, niece. The first time she attacked the Longbottoms, she cursed them so badly that they could not have another child. She attempted to murder Lady Hermione at Hogwarts. It’s a terrible thing, what she has become. If she allows us to capture her, you may certainly go to those she has wronged and ask for mercy for her, but some form of justice must be done at this point." |
Miserably, Adelaide closed her eyes, shutting everything out, before nodding silently. |
Andromeda went to the door and quietly summoned a house-elf to bring a bottle of wine and a bottle of Calming Draught. This was going to be hard on Adelaide. For that matter, it was going to be hard on Andromeda herself. She intended to fight, but she might need to have this on hand afterward. |
"Here they are!" announced Burke, who was stationed on the rooftop. Edgar Fawley, again serving as a messenger, quickly hurried down the open trapdoor to carry the information to the people inside. Burke and the others on the roof readied their wands, each one focused on a hunched, yet horribly fast, figure below. Burke shuddered at their glassy, lifeless eyes and ghastly pale skin. Despite a greyish tone, the body of Lord Rabastan was clearly identifiable, and it was apparent that he had not suffered prior to his death. The Longbottoms’ bodies, however, were different. Their skin was vaguely sagging now, particularly around their faces. Burke had not needed to know from Adelaide what had happened to them; the signs of having been brutally tortured by the Cruciatus Curse prior to their deaths were all too apparent. Burke knew this kind of magic too well to doubt it. In his days as a shopkeeper, he had even sold dark, grotesque items made of cursed human body parts, both internal and external. |
The boy doesn’t need to see this, he decided at once. Far better to see his parents’ ashes than to have the memory of their bodies like this, controlled by their killer, seared into his mind forever. Burke took a deep breath, summoned his magic, and cast a cursed fireball at the thing that had once been Frank Longbottom. |
The flames took the shape of dog heads, biting at the undead bodies with teeth of fire. The thing could not speak; it did not breathe air. It no longer felt pain either. The cursed fire cut through the dead flesh, sizzling and crackling, breaking the foul magic spell that animated it. The body collapsed to the ground as the flames continued to consume it. |
Next to Burke, Cygnus Black—a look of utter disgust on his face—had cast the same spell at the body of Alice Longbottom. Her hair blazed like a torch as the corpse fell to the earth. On Burke’s other side, Lord Flint had required two fireballs to hit the thing that had been Rabastan Lestrange, but he had managed it at last. The fireball that had missed, as well as the ones that were reducing the bodies to ash, were rapidly growing into a solid wall of flame that trapped Bellatrix Lestrange before the gates of the castle. Burke turned to the other defenders on the roof and nodded. As one, the three wizards cast spells at the wall of fire to keep it from growing any further. |
This was easy, Burke thought in pleasure. Everything about taking this castle had been easy, both the battle against the old lord himself and this defense of it. He liked it that way. The more safety he himself could enjoy while earning acclaim and honor, the better. |
Inside the keep, the rest of the group gazed at each other. Regulus, Andromeda, and the Fitz Lestranges were near the back of the group, protected by the other defenders in case Bellatrix tried to use the Killing Curse as soon as they opened the doors. Neville Longbottom was near the head of the group. He had insisted upon that. |
The great doors creaked open, revealing a black-robed, utterly furious Bellatrix Lestrange to them. Her dark hair was a frizzy cloud. She glared at them, her wand already drawn. |
"Crucio!" she roared, sending the curse at the nearest person, Rob Wilkes. He toppled to the floor and writhed in pain. |
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