Chapter 2: The Innocent Murderer

The curious thing known as time flew by dreadfully quickly. January's snow melted into the blooming flowers of March, which eventually led to the near end of spring in June. Penelope's 1st birthday was approaching. The toddler went on with whatever she had of her life to enjoy: running around the chambers, playing with the young basilisk, or her favorite part, hanging around Bloodyle. Evidently, these two had grown such a strong bond in such a short amount of time, Penelope saw Bloodyle as if the creature was her actual sister.

June 6th finally came. For some reason, Penelope woke up at dawn feeling uncomfortable. Her cozy bed now felt like an empty pit of bones, the light coming in from the sole window to the outside world looked dimmer and made her nursery darker. She forced herself out of bed and let her small legs move her out. She found the basilisk parents. They were waiting for her with a small cake with teal-colored frosting and a small candle. None of their children were around.

"Happy birthday, Penelope," the mother basilisk said weakly. She presented the cake to Penelope.

"Where's Bloodyle?" Penelope asked, not in English but in Parseltongue.

The father basilisk rubbed his fingers nervously.

Penelope understood why she felt some kind of dread. Even though it's been a year, she still remembered leaving her warm ocean of darkness to end up in the arms of a father who didn't even love her the way the basilisks have treated her as one of their own. In her young, innocent way, Penelope knew that something bad would happen today but she didn't know what it would be.

She blew her first candle and ate her cake entirely. Even though it was made of viper liver and lavender, a specialty from the mother basilisk that Penelope normally enjoyed, her body gave her the sensation of wanting to throw up her birthday cake. The basilisks had her clean up and put on the nicest snakeskin dress she had.

"Where are we going?" Penelope asked.

"Your father is bringing you upstairs." The toddler immediately froze when 'He' was brought up. "Penelope... whatever happens upstairs, do as your told but do not accept blood-thirst in you," the basilisk father warned her.

Parseltongue was heard from the other side of the chamber's door. The basilisks immediately turned into serpent form and stayed in the sidelines as Voldemort stepped inside the chamber. Penelope's veins seemed to be getting a series of stings, as if her interiors were the home of a wasp hive. Voldemort was so terrifying, even the water he stepped on didn't make a sound.

"Hurry up!" He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the chamber.

"No!" Penelope shook her hand and failed to get him to release her. Honestly, her attempt just made him tighten his grip on her. His nails sank into her soft skin, and though it didn't leave any exterior mark, it left a horrible pain on the inside worthy enough to be the pain one gets after getting mauled by a hungry tiger.

He brought her up the staircase and into the level of his castle. It was rapid, but Penelope managed to see the hallways they went through. Dark walls and furniture, greens in the cement... Voldemort lived in a rather luxurious home, but right now he made Penelope feel like she'd rather live permanently in the basilisk's underground sewer than his dark paradise.

A door opened before him and they stepped inside some kind of drawing room. A witch and a wizard were pointing their arms at a Muggle man. His wrists were tied behind his back and he was forced to stay kneeled.

"See that?" Voldemort pointed at the Muggle and forced Penelope to watch. "You're going to kill that Muggle, Penelope."

"K...Kill?" Of all the words in English, Penelope understood it awfully well. In her mind, 'kill' was pretty much what became of the local adders when the basilisks used them for food.

Voldemort pulled out his bone white wand. "You will use this, you will point it at that man, and you will kill him by shouting 'Avada Kadavra'." He brought the wand to Penelope's face. "Do it."

Penelope hugged herself in fright and took a step back. "Don't want to," she shook her head at him.

"I'm telling you to murder this Muggle!" Voldemort was losing his patience.

"Don't want to!" Penelope's eyes began to water.

The witch quickly eyed the Muggle before going to kneel down and be at Penelope's height. "Sweetie, this Muggle is dangerous," she said. "Muggles kill witches like you and me! They burn us! They hunt us!" She clutched Penelope's shoulder. "Do you want him to kill you?"

"I'D NEVER KILL A CHILD!" The Muggle exclaimed. "WHAT KIND OF CRACKPOTS TELL A CHILD TO MURDER?"

"FINE, THEN I'LL USE THE DIRECT APPROACH!" Voldemort ran so loudly, Penelope ran to hide behind a couch. The witch and wizard stepped back while Voldemort pointed his wand at the Muggle. "Imperio! Relashio!"

Penelope gulped. The Muggle's brown eyes whitened and he immediately stood upright once the cords were released off him magically. The toddler didn't understand what happened to the Muggle, but soon enough, he began to charge at her. In fright, she crawled down the couch, which he shoved aside. She ran and pushed down the harpsichord chair, causing him to trip. The Muggle just got up and continued chasing her until he got her cornered by the chimney

"Well?" Voldemort snapped. "That filthy Muggle just started hunting you because you're a witch."

"Did nothing!" Penelope said tearfully as she felt the flames getting closer behind her back. "You made him!"

Voldemort looked sternly at her. The Muggle picked up one of the chimney pokers and aimed it at her. Being raised by basilisks, Penelope's instincts made her grab the poker. She and the Muggle began to fight over it.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She shouted in Parseltongue and swirled at the poker. This made the Muggle lose balance, and as Penelope moved out of the way, the Muggle fell head first into the chimney's fire. And since Voldemort enjoyed having fires made from the flames of dead phoenix, it cremated the Muggle. Penelope dropped on her knees and cried. A small white fragment flew out of her tears and got sucked into a bottle that Voldemort held out. As he trapped the fragment in it, his expression read a mix of pleasure and frustration.

"Well done, Penelope." He sank his nails into her wrist yet again and pulled the crying child outside the room. Minutes later, the witch and the wizard who remained behind cringed when the child's horrible wailing echoed throughout the castle.

...

Penelope kept wailing and kicking while Bloodyle and the basilisk father held her down.

"I know it stings," the basilisk mother said as she patted some cotton soaked with Cretan dittany onto Penelope's back. As soon as Penelope 'murdered' the Muggle, Voldemort had brought her to a kitchen, forced her to lay her stomach on a table, ripped off the back of her dress, and hammered a Kraken Acupuncture needle. The hammering left a permanent black mark on her skin, not the Dark Mark, but a mark illustrating the current Penelope, looking miserable as possible. The process also left some 'splinching', as the basilisks put it, which is why they were holding her down so that they could apply the medication.

It took almost an hour to do it, but the basilisk mother managed to seal off her wounds. Her forked tongue licked off the bloody stains to clean the skin, which calmed down the toddler a bit.

"Can you take off the needle?" Penelope asked the basilisk mother.

"It's hard to remove Kraken Acupuncture Needles." The creature shook her head. "I don't even know if there's a remedy."

"And wizards call us monsters!" the father basilisk rolled his eyes. "It's one thing to create Horcruxes and force a child to get some, but adding those cursed needles?"

"That's enough for today." The basilisk mother helped Penelope stand back up on her feet. "Bloodyle, help her get some rest. For one birthday, she's seen enough."

...

Voldemort didn't come down to check on Penelope after what happened on her birthday. June quickly became September and he was pacing around his office, starring at the soul fragment that had come out of Penelope when she killed someone for the first time. He still couldn't understand why it was so white and unchanging.

On a foggy night, while Penelope went to the glens with the basilisks, he decided to discuss his problem with Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr, the Death Eaters who had been present during the 'event'.

"You two know that a part of her soul came out," he said while sitting stiffly on his chair. "So why isn't she changing?"

"Physically or mentally?" Bellatrix asked.

"Both! I mean, is it that hard for a child to obey when she's being told to do something?"

"In fairness, My Lord, it's not so much about disobeying but will-power," Crouch said. "She may not fully understand things, which is normal for children her age, but at the same time she's born from you, the greatest sorcerer in the world..."

Voldemort tilted his head with a small hint of flattery.

"But at the same time, her mother, the demoness who made a contract with, was a nature demon," Crouch continued. "My conclusion? Your daughter is smart enough to understand that you wanted her to harm a life because she inherited your intellect, but she could see that A, the Muggle was innocent, and B, he attacked her and she killed him because she saw and understood that you bewitched him to do so. Her nature demon mother must have passed on her sense of compassion."

"I can't have that brat going around with that!" Voldemort snapped.

"I know, My Lord, but it explains why her soul fragment came out white. She didn't take any pleasure or real purpose in murdering someone. My best recommendation would be to give her a reason why she should murder. A reason that would make her transfer from the innocent murderer she is to a fully-dedicated, bloodbath loving psychopath."

Voldemort rubbed the bottom of his chin. "That's not a half-bad idea, Barty. There's just one problem: how do I do that to that pest?"

"Perhaps since we're more experienced with our own children, we can try to guide your daughter into the Dark Arts into basic steps," Bellatrix offered. "Like in the format of games they can handle or even some field trips. You can better handle your daughter once she becomes eleven."

"True, I wouldn't want the Ministry to know she's alive... yet." Voldemort tightened his fist. "Very well. I'll let you two give it a try."

...

Bellatrix and Crouch got to work and gathered their ideas. By the time November came to a start, they finished a complete set of what they came to call as 'Death Eater Daycare'. On the first day, a Monday, Bloodyle escorted Penelope into what seemed to be a room used for conference meetings, but Crouch and Bellatrix had arranged the room by pushing away the fancy furniture to the edge and spread most of the central area with toys, cushy green pillows, and a chalkboard.

"You don't have to stay," Bellatrix remarked to Bloodyle when the young basilisk pulled one of the armchairs and sat on it.

"Either I keep an eye to make sure you're not going to make Penelope kill babies or I can just kill you on the spot." Bloodyle sank herself on the seat.

"Pf! As if the Dark Lord would let her harm my son and Barty's daughter!"

Bloodyle looked at the new generation of Death Eaters, a bunch of infants that reeked of fanatical pureblood genes. Brittany Crouch, who only had one strand of brown hair out, was beating a voodoo doll of a Mudblood onto the floor as if the doll were a hammer. As for Bayen, the perfect momma's boy, immediately crawled to Penelope and tried to smile at her. She grimaced, stuck her tongue at him, and stormed off to hug Bloodyle. Bayen whined on the spot.

"Ooh, I think she hurt his feelings!" Bloodyle taunted to Bellatrix.

"Well... there goes anything she shares in common with her father." Crouch shook it off and clapped his hands. He then directed his attention to the three members of the 'Death Eater Daycare' (or DED, as Bloodyle came to nickname it). "OK, children. We're going to do some fun games!" He pulled out his wand and summoned some unit blocks with painted letters on each side. They pilled up in perfect alphabetical order before the children. "Here's the game. I say a word, you stack the cubes to make out the word, and the word will come to life. For example, here is what I get if I want HOUSE ELF." Crouch waved his wands. The lettered cubes floated to form the word, which caused a mist projection of a house-elf wandering about the room until Crouch had it disappear. "Go on. You try it, but with the word DRAGON."

"You can't be serious." Bloodyle puffed. "There's no way that those babies will be able to grasp on to it."

...

Bloodyle was both correct and incorrect. As November went to December, Bayen and Brittany made no progress. Either they couldn't spell the words assigned to them, which usually referenced animals (magical or not), or they made words like 'mommy' or 'dada', which conjured projections of their parents. The flattery did not help.

With Penelope, it was a different case. When she heard the words she was told, she understood them. It still happened that some words, she could not spell them in English. For instance, Bellatrix asked for the children to make 'Troll' with their cubes, Penelope made the word in an order that the adults did not seem to understand even though they got a Troll projected until Bloodyle realized that Penelope made the word out in Parseltongue. Another case like that came when asked to make the word 'Snake', and not only did Penna make the word in perfect English, but she used most of the provided cubes to make an alphabetical order of all existing snakes. As they kept doing that game, Penelope's English improved.

Another game Bellatrix and Crouch had come up with was what they called 'History Storytelling'. They made childish stories that talked about actual bad relationships between Muggles and wizards, how Muggles kidnapped baby wizards and burned witches, and how Mudbloods steal magic from purebloods. At the end of each story, Brittany and Bayen looked terrified. Only Penelope was unfazed.

"I don't get it," she said.

"What don't you understand, sweetie?" Bellatrix asked quietly.

"You say Muggles and Mudbloods are evil," the toddler say, "but you don't say anything about evil purebloods."

Bellatrix and Crouch eyed each other hesitantly.

"Purebloods aren't evil." Bellatrix shook her head and smiled. "They're tough, but their nice people. Only people with dirty blood or a non-human gene are evil."

"You lie."

The adults looked startled. Even Bloodyle was shocked. The words came out of Penelope's mouth so bluntly, yet so innocently.

"You aren't nice people. The Muggle I killed... he didn't like that Voldemort wanted me to kill him. He didn't a child like me to murder," Penelope said. "Voldemort is a pureblood but he's the worst man I know... But since you say non-purebloods are evil, than it means Voldemort isn't a pureblood."

Bloodyle bit her nails. On cue, Voldemort stormed in and slapped Penelope until she curled up like a fetus on the floor. When she finally wailed, Bloodyle finally intervened. "My Lord, Penelope didn't mean to insinuate that you aren't a pureblood. It was an accidental slip of the tongue."

Voldemort said nothing. The worst he did after slapping his precocious toddler was to put DED on an early Christmas break.

Penelope took the Christmas break opportunity to stay clear away from the Death Eaters and Voldemort and spend more time with the basilisks. With the snow covering the glens and humans staying indoors at all costs, they'd often go out to better hunt for deer, or if lucky, bears. Sometimes, Penelope would find grass snakes or adders peaking their heads out of their heads, and the moment they'd find out she was a Parselmouth, they gladly took breaks in their hibernation to have some chats with her. As she talked to them, Penelope came to see that snakes, to her part, were much more trusting than the humans she had been introduced.

"Well it's true that humans can be judgmental, but it's because of different perspectives." One adder said. "A cousin of mine told me that some cultures venerate us. My sister said she knew this cobra back in India who knew this Muggle who makes charming music out of his flute."

"Like a piper?" Penelope asked.

"Very much so."

A day after she talked with that adder, she visited a den full of grass snakes.

"I don't suppose you know why Voldemort hates me?" Penelope dared to ask the snakes.

"You're too young to ask such things!" One hissed in a scolding manner.

"Why so strict? Look at her skin. She almost looks like a worm chewed by baby crocodiles!" Another said. Penelope scowled at the minuscule insult.

"It's not your fault, dear child," the eldest of the grass snake den told Penelope as she sat in the snow while they only poked out their heads from their warm den. "Many of my relatives have gotten the grand opportunities to chat with the Dark Lord and his ancestors."

"His ancestors?"

"Yes. Didn't you know that your father's maternal family, the great line of Gaunt, was a line of Parselmouth descendants of Salazar Slytherin? A founder of the wizarding school of Hogwarts, a pureblood fanatic, and the one who bred the same female basilisk who nurtures you."

Penelope's eyes widened in curiosity. "I didn't know I was related to a celebrity."

"Oh, he was famous." The grass snake nodded. "But frankly, considering what he was, it's no surprise that most dark witches and wizards find themselves sorted into Slytherin house."

"At this rate, probably three-quarters of Hogwarts alumni sorted into Slytherin are currently serving your father around in his castle." One of the snakes snickered. "The irony that he rebuild his Muggle family's estate into that castle the size of his pride!"

Penelope shook her head. "Excuse me? He can't be... he's a half-blood?"

"Of course he is! Haven't you been told? His mother was a pureblood witch and his father a Muggle. That naive simpleton of a witch had a love potion placed on that Muggle. Made him obsessively in love with her, married her, and she got pregnant."

"Though of course, she thought that he'd still love her even if she removed the love potion!" The elder snake exclaimed. "But what did she expect? A love potion gives only the illusion, not the real thing. The Muggle immediately abandoned her and she died after giving birth to her son, your father."

"Like how I don't know my mother?" Penelope realized sadly.

"No. Rumor has it you were born under a contract. The Dark Lord sees you as a tool like he does to anyone surrounding him, but your mother really wanted you as part of her family.

"She gave her love to you. Your father's incapable of love, but you are."

Penelope looked back at the direction of the castle.

...

New Year's Eve had passed. A favorite tradition for the Death Eaters (or so to say, the adults) was to leave the territory and give the first tortures to Muggle-borns before dawn on January 1st. As they turned into black smokes and flew away from the castle with their master, Penelope got out of bed. She tiptoed her way out of the basilisks' chamber and dared to climb up the stairs. The toddler took a cautious look. No one was in sight.

Voldemort usually forbade his servants from going at one of the central rooms in the western section of the castle, where anyone could have a view of the sunset, unless he wanted a private meeting. Now one year and seven months old, Penelope understood that the area was where he kept his business to himself. In other words, his office.

She found a staircase in the nearest hallway that led straight to the western section, but she froze. A snake blocked her way. It was much smaller than the basilisks, but it was much bigger than the local small snakes. Penelope almost mistook it for some kind of boa constrictor with python scale patterns until she saw that the big snake had the triple of a viper's amount of fangs.

"Hi?"

The snake, unimpressed, slithered down the steps and directed the toddler back to the chamber. Having woken up when they sensed the snake's presence, the basilisk father went straight between apologizing to the snake and scolding Penelope.

"You should consider yourself lucky that it was Nagini and not your father who caught you trying to snoop to his office!" He told her. "What were you thinking?"

"I... wanted to see if there was anything about our family. After all, I'm Slytherin's descendant, right?"

The basilisk looked as if he had petrified himself while Nagini merely slithered away. As the day went on, around 8am, she had been summoned. Penelope feared that she was being called to be forced to kill again. Bloodyle brought her to the same room where DED took place. Bellatrix and Crouch let their children fight over some toy while Bloodyle held Penelope in her arms. Voldemort was sitting on an armchair resting by a lit fireplace. One hand was caressing Nagini, the other some thick, greenish purple book.

"Nagini told me that you tried to go into my office." He looked sternly at the toddler, who felt like shrinking in Bloodyle's hold.

"She didn't think of the consequences," Bloodyle tried to protect Penelope. "She also didn't tell my parents why she wanted to go up." Honestly, even Bloodyle didn't understand why Penelope would want to go up voluntarily to the level of the one she despised.

"We're Gaunt." Penelope dared to say.

"What?" Voldemort said coldly. Bellatrix and Crouch, on the other hand, did not have the same reaction. Give them a bunch of butterbeer bottles and they'd redo the wizarding New Year's Eve festivities all over again.

"This is wonderful, my Lord!" Bellatrix said. "You two are from the Gaunt family!"

"And if she knows she's a Gaunt, she knows that she belongs to the Sacred-Twenty Eight families of perfect, Muggle-proof, pureblood families!" Crouch went on to pinch Penelope's cheeks. "You know you're superior, don't you?"

"Don't get so touchy, Crouch," Voldemort warned. Crouch backed up.

"Yes, you wouldn't want him to touch my dirty half-breed skin," Penelope sassed at Voldemort in Parseltongue. "Filthy half-blood."

Bloodyle gasped when she realized what the child just said. Bellatrix and Crouch didn't understand a thing she said, but whatever it was, it made the Dark Lord become furious. He grabbed the book he was caressing, got up, and slapped Penelope on the face with it. She fell onto the floor and cried at the pain.

"Do enjoy learning about your value. Here, something to help you learn how to read," He dropped the thick book onto her stomach. In that area, it made the book feel much heavier than it did when it hit her face. "And also to give better respect."

Penelope cried even more. Bloodyle reached to pick the book off her, but Voldemort pulled her by the arm and took her outside in the hallway. He closed the door behind him, leaving Bellatrix and Crouch to tend for Penelope.

"Why is it that you can't keep this child in check?" He groaned in Parseltongue.

"You asked us basilisks to raise her, and we're doing the job unlike you." She crossed her arms. "I can see why those oafs tell her half-bloods are 'evil', considering that you're no different than your filthy father."

Voldemort bit his tongue to hold in whatever could come out that would disturb his Death Eaters. He took a deep breath and stared at Bloodyle. "It seems like Penelope's growing up rather fast, she'll have to leave her nursery."

"No!"

"Oh don't worry, she'll still eat and sleep in that cavernous room you basilisks call home! But from now on, she's no longer a baby! No more soft beds and her free time will be spent in the castle. And since you are SO demanding to be there for her, you'll be with her the whole time!"

"But my parents will worry!"

"You'll live," he scoffed. "I managed to without mine."