A/N: I just wanted to thank Lala, ashrachellexx, Amanda2308, Callisto, and DamonSalvatoreLover for reviewing chapter two, and I do hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter Three: Dumbledore's Army
"Honestly Hermione," Rayna said harshly as they trudged through the snow, "bringing me along is only going to make it harder for you to convince them."
"She's right," Harry added as they made their way to Hogshead, "This is mad, who would want to be taught by me, I'm a nutter remember?"
"Look on the bright side," Ron continued, "you can't be any worse than old toad face."
"Thanks Ron," Harry replied sarcastically, "I feel loads better."
"We've got to be able to defend ourselves," Hermione said, "Harry; you're the only person who can teach us, they know that."
"They don't exactly believe they need to defend themselves." Rayna said tersely.
"That's why we brought you along," Ron replied, "They all think you're going to murder them."
Hermione gave Ron a hard punch in the shoulder, which he didn't appreciate. Rayna just glared at him, though she knew there was truth in his statement. Despite gradually improving their friendship after their falling out, Rayna was still very distant from her friends, knowing they weren't on the best of terms.
"Lovely spot!" Ron said sarcastically as they finally walked through the doors of Hogshead inn and pub.
"Thought it would be safer off the beaten track." Hermione replied reluctantly.
Filled with rough wooden tables adorned in nothing other than the stubs of candles sitting on their surfaces, Hogshead was the last place that Rayna would have assumed they were going. With a concrete floor so dirty that it appeared they were walking on open ground, it was no wonder it was notorious for being a disreputable establishment occupied by the shady and low-class. As they walked over to the open bar area, occupied by several students she recognized, they all gave Rayna disdainful looks and rude glares; she was the only Slytherin in attendance. She sat down at the front of the room beside her friends; for a moment nothing was said as both sides took in the situation.
"Uhm, hi, you all know why we're here. We need a teacher. A proper teacher. One who's had real experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts." Hermione finally said, standing up to address the apprehensive crowd.
"Why?" someone asked rudely, though Rayna didn't recognize him.
"Why? Because you-know-who's back you tosspot." Ron replied rudely.
"So he says," the boy continued, motioning toward Harry.
"Because Dumbledore says," Hermione added calmly.
"So Dumbledore says because he says," He continued, though Harry just looked down at the ground, "the point is where's the proof?"
For a moment an uncomfortable silence filled the room; behind them, a strange looking witch glanced over to look at the group of Hogwarts students. Rayna stood up, though she was immediately greeted by disdainful stares, and a few people even pulled out their wands. Though she knew this would happen, it didn't make her any less angry when it did.
"Besides, if it's true," some girl from Ravenclaw began rudely, looking over at Rayna, "what makes you think it's safe to include her. We might as well be training with a death eater."
"See Hermione," Rayna said coldly, "these people are too stupid to realize their lives are at risk. They only came here to argue and accuse Harry and me."
"I'm not stupid!" the Ravenclaw replied angrily, "Don't you dare talk about me like that!"
"You might be able to do something about it," Rayna said smoothly, "if you actually bothered to learn something beyond simple jinxes."
"I could beat you in a duel any day," she replied offensively, "without any help from Harry."
"Prove it," Rayna said coldly, prompting the girl to whip out her wand.
She walked a few steps forward, though Rayna could tell she was a bit nervous and reluctant to do so. For a moment she wondered why the brash girl wasn't put in Gryffindor, though her trembling fingers and nervous disposition automatically told her that it was because this sort of bravery wasn't natural to her. She began to mutter a hex, but Rayna was quick to pull out her wand, causing her to stop before she could even finish the spell.
"Rayna stop it!" Hermione said desperately, grabbing her arm in what was meant to instill comfort as Rayna lowered her wand to her side.
"I won't join if Riddle does," someone finally said, a usually timid Hufflepuff girl.
Rayna tightened her grip on her wand as the room interrupted into a chorus of "me too," and "I'm out of here." Though Hermione shot her a look of sympathy and her three friends didn't make any attempt to ask her to leave, Rayna turned on her heel and walked out of the room, leaving them all behind her. Hermione sighed, but even she knew it was the only way they would have any sort of cooperation. For once, her classmates were correct in assuming she wanted every one of them dead. For once, Rayna longed to stand alongside her father.
After trudging through the snow and walking a considerable distance across the small village, Rayna went into the Three Broomsticks, sitting down at a table along the outskirts of the room to avoid the small groups of students at Hogwarts that sat clustered amiably at several tables. Only when she sat down in her seat did she finally loosen her grip on her wand, tucking it back down into her robe as she remembered she was in a public establishment. She sat back in her seat lazily, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to calm herself down. When she finally opened her eyes she saw Draco strutting over to her table, his face twisted into a smug grin as he stared back at her.
"What do you want Malfoy?" Rayna spat as he took a seat beside her.
"God Riddle," Draco drawled as he attempted to cover his nose, ignoring her question completely, "Why do you hang out with Granger, I can smell mudblood on you from a mile away?"
"Is that why you came over here, to insult me?" Rayna shot back coldly, "Pansy already learned her lesson, perhaps you should learn yours."
"I wasn't insulting you," Draco said smugly, "only the filth you choose to associate with."
"I thought that made me a blood traitor," Rayna replied coldly, sitting up straighter in her seat.
"You've never liked them," Draco said simply.
Rayna pushed herself out of her seat and stood up to leave, but Draco was quick to grab her wrist and pull her back down. She was about to yell back at him and pull herself out of his grip, but as she looked around to see they were beginning to make a scene, she just sat back down impassively, trying to make their exchange less conspicuous. Though most of them went back to whatever it was they were doing, Rayna saw that many of the groups began to talk avidly about the pair; it wasn't every day that Rayna actually had a civil conversation with another Slytherin, much less Draco Malfoy.
"Look Riddle," Draco continued irritably, "you have no idea who you are or what you're entitled to. My father said that…"
"I don't care what your father says," Rayna interrupted, "I'm not he-who-must-not-be-named's heir. I've never had anything to do with him and I never will. Leave me alone Malfoy."
"You don't have a choice," Draco said angrily as Rayna stood up to leave, though this time he made no attempt to try and stop her.
Rayna walked out of the Three Broomsticks, ignoring the piercing stares of her peers and a few professors as she strode confidently out the door. Though she was clearly flustered and confused, she made every effort to conceal those feelings from the public eye, walking briskly through the snow and along the winding paths of Hogsmead.
Rayna sat down on one of the long benches beneath the vast windowsills compromising the castle's corridors. She inched her way up closer to the glass, pulling her legs toward herself as she looked out at the horizon. She watched as the carriages hauling students back from Hogsmead grew closer and closer to the castle, several loaded with members of the newly formed Dumbledore's Army. Though they were all just arriving, Rayna had chosen to walk back to the castle early after her not so pleasant encounter, still sulking in the way her peers portrayed her.
Not even a minute passed by before she was thrown from reality, her mind growing cloudy and confused as she drifted off into a dream-like state of euphoria. Soon she could feel nothing of the world around her, forgetting all about the life she lived as she let her mind waver and her thoughts go blank. She woke up in a dream so real that it was nearly impossible to distinguish it from reality; if it hadn't been for the familiar setting and circumstances, she probably wouldn't have thought it a dream. The sense of deja-vu didn't come as any less of a shock; she had only dreamt the dream one other time and had grown to dismiss it as an act of her imagination, but now that it was recurring, she thought twice about it, realizing that it was far from normal.
"Hello?" Rayna asked softly, her voice echoing throughout the vast room that made up the hall of prophesy.
She paused for a moment, but still no one answered, her voice carrying down the long aisles as she walked forward, over to the same spot she was drawn to last time –the aisle containing the only illuminated prophesy in the room. Again, the small orb's tag read, "Rayna Riddle," though she picked it up once more to find that no prophesy was revealed to her. She set the cloudy sphere back down, its light fading slowly as the room grew darker and darker; soon nothing was visible at all.
Rayna was quick to illuminate the tip of her wand with a simple charm, though when the setting loomed once again into view, she saw the figure of a pale, snake-like man with waxy features and cold, piercing red eyes –she saw her father. This time she didn't scream or jump in apprehension and fear, instead her lips curled into a smirk that she couldn't suppress.
"Hello father," Rayna said calmly, letting out a deep breath she didn't realize she was holding in.
"You see it now, don't you?" Voldemort hissed, his icy voice trailing dangerously throughout her mind.
"I always have." Rayna replied simply before adding, "Just because I don't need them, that doesn't mean I need you."
"You want that though," Voldemort continued, "You enjoyed hurting Parkinson. Do you think you would have actually defended yourself if I hadn't pushed you to it?"
"I know I wouldn't have," Rayna replied softly, "but it wouldn't have ever occurred in the first place if I wasn't stuck with your name."
"You already know that was Dumbledore's doing," Voldemort said firmly, "I intended to give you your mother's surname. Once the wizarding world knows of my return, you will be praised for it rather than shunned, but not if you continue to associate with those who hate you for it."
"You mean my friends?" Rayna asked, "The Slytherin's hate me for it more than anyone else."
"Because you're a blood traitor," Voldemort spat back, his voice laced with hatred, "They hate you because you hide behind a façade of innocence and good intentions. Your "friends" wouldn't want you if they really knew you."
Rayna glared, though she remained completely silent; despite knowing how much truth was in his statement, she wouldn't dare show that she recognized it. As Rayna stood idly she saw her father's thin lips curl into a twisted smile, one as cold and icy as his voice. Remembering that she was trapped within a dream, or rather her mind; she recognized that it was impossible to hide anything from him. It was as though the door to her thoughts had been breached and there was no way of concealing her innermost feelings and opinions. There was no pretending, no mask to hide behind; all she could do was chat with him with openness and honesty, whether she wanted to or not.
"Very good Rayna," Voldemort said coldly as though he had read her mind, though his tone had grown softer and less spiteful than before, "You have more in common with me than just a name, you know that."
"What do you want?" Rayna asked curiously, her tone showing interest more than anything else, "We both know it isn't to reunite and become one big happy family."
"I dare say you would hate that almost as much as I would," Voldemort replied before answering, "I want you to join me –become a death eater."
Rayna was at a loss for words, finding herself unable to reply as she drifted from her dream; her surroundings became a blur as her mind settled back into a state of consciousness. Slowly but surely she was able to make sense of her surroundings and comprehend the reality around her. She considered what Voldemort had said, but she couldn't help but feel that something was off; there was more to the reason than what he had told her –she was sure of it. She began to hear voices; familiar voices she had grown so accustomed to hearing that seemed to drone down into her head. They were frantic as they chanted her name desperately; she felt her body shake as hands gripped her sides, though she was only just beginning to open her eyes and see the blurred outlines of two other people in front of her. She looked up to see two Gryffindors staring down at her, worry etched into their faces as they finally stopped shaking her and calling out her name. She looked up to see Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger.
"Rayna? Are you alright?" Hermione asked worriedly as she leant down to observe her.
"I'm fine," Rayna panted, pulling herself upright on the bench she had been laying on as she let her gaze scan the empty corridor.
"We need to get you to the hospital wing," Ginny exclaimed as she bent down to help her up from her set on the bench, though Rayna immediately resisted and remained where she sat.
"No," Rayna shot back, though her voice cracked ever so slightly as it betrayed her worry and apprehension, "I'm fine –really. I just had a bad dream."
"That didn't look like a dream Rayna," Hermione said curiously, "you have got to tell us what has been going on. This isn't the first time it's happened."
"Nothing is going on," Rayna shot back, desperate to elude her friends and their interrogations, "I've had a pretty bad day, don't you think? I'm flustered enough from being rejected by the very people you swore wouldn't shun me, did you ever think it might just be because of that?"
"I'm so sorry Rayna," Hermione said softly, her eyes glistening with sympathy and unease, "I wanted to tell them to stop, but you know how important it is to teach them to defend themselves… you-know-who is back, their lives could be at risk."
"What a pity that would be, seeing them die," Rayna mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?" Ginny asked curiously, perking up slightly.
"Nothing," Rayna retorted nonchalantly.
For a moment the three of them said nothing as an awkward silence engulfed the hallway, Rayna considered telling them about her dreams, but she knew it would end in nothing but turmoil and spite, so she decided against it. Ginny stared at her with unease; though she could never manage to keep her composure around Rayna, Rayna never understood why.
"You look just like him you know," Ginny said suddenly, earning her an uncomfortable warning glance from Hermione, before adding at the last minute, "Tom Riddle, that is."
"I wouldn't know." Rayna replied tersely.
"Rayna this is serious," Hermione continued, refraining from dropping the subject much to her avail, "if it's anything like what's happening to Harry then we have to tell Dumbledore."
"If you bring Dumbledore into this, I will not tell you a thing." Rayna shot back, aggravated at the constant interference from the headmaster.
"Alright fine," Hermione sighed, her eyes glistening with disappointment.
"You both promise you won't say a thing to him," Rayna continued, looking over at Ginny, who had to revert her eyes from Rayna's gaze.
"We promise," Hermione continued as Ginny nodded her head in agreement, "will you please just tell us."
After a brief pause Rayna finally decided to give into Hermione's pleas, "My father speaks to me in these dreams. I've only dreamt it twice, but both times it has been within the Department of Mysteries, in the Hall of Prophesy."
Hermione took on a look of absolute worry and realization as her face lit up with understanding. Seeing her made Rayna's stomach coil into a knot as she realized that her confidentiality would almost certainly be at risk. She immediately regret telling the two of them anything since they always strived to find some almighty solution to everything pertaining to Lord Voldemort and would not stop until Dumbledore and Harry knew, as well as anyone else who inquired about it. Rayna felt sick, as though her conversations with her father were no longer private and she had somehow betrayed him for letting it slip –sure, she owed him nothing, but she had to admit she enjoyed talking to him and she enjoyed the power he had given her against Pansy.
"What does he talk to you about?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Well," Rayna began uneasily, trying to think of something far from the truth quickly, "I don't remember a lot of it, but it has just been things against the Order and against Harry."
"Like what?" Hermione continued, her eyes seeming to bore into Rayna's.
"Like how Harry was the reason I didn't have a father," Rayna said slyly, masking the truth with a lie that Hermione would easily accept.
Hermione looked at her with an expression of sympathy and understanding; though she hated lying to her friends, she knew how easy it was to manipulate Hermione's strong sense of emotion. It had been exactly the kind of thing Hermione was expecting, something Voldemort could easily use to manipulate her –yet something that could raise the emotional side that made Hermione so vulnerable. For a moment, Rayna felt triumphant with the realization of how well she had turned the tables away from the truth, she was a Slytherin after all.
"We still have to tell Dumbledore," Hermione said quietly before Rayna cut her off in protest.
"You promised me you wouldn't say a word." Rayna shot back angrily, "Dumbledore stays out of this."
"Rayna listen," Hermione consoled, "he can help you like-"
"Like he helped Harry?" Rayna shot back before she could finish, "Forgive me, but I'm not going to risk my life because Dumbledore feels like using this to his advantage."
"He knew Harry could do it," Ginny said defensively, "Harry is-"
"Is what, Ginny?" Rayna snapped, her features becoming livid with displeasure, "Is famous? Is a hero? Is the greatest thing since Godric Gryffindor himself? He is still just a student here; he isn't even of age yet."
Ginny's eyes widened as Rayna glared back at her; though Rayna didn't want to act like this toward her friends, she knew it was the only way to get across to them. She hated herself for resembling her father at that moment and knew exactly what it looked like to them –that she wasn't as detached from Lord Voldemort as she had always let on. Though this brought on a feeling of disgust and displeasure, she couldn't help but enjoy the power it brought her to use the connection she had to her father against them –it wouldn't have been nearly as frightening if she didn't resemble someone so feared throughout the world. It was one thing that she was like a carbon-copy of her father back in his day, with the same jet-black hair, piercing, cold blue eyes and alabaster skin, but it was another thing to resemble him in demeanor; the way he composed himself was as prevalent in her as anything was.
"Just think about it," Hermione said finally, "please try and trust Dumbledore, he wants to help you."
"Fine," Rayna said in defeat, "I'll think about it. But until then you won't say a word."
"Alright," Hermione answered with disappointment.
"Do you swear?" Rayna asked apprehensively.
"I swear." Hermione answered firmly.
"You too?" Rayna asked, turning toward Ginny, who was still uneasy about Rayna snapping at her.
"Yes." She answered awkwardly.
"Would you be prepared to make an unbreakable vow?" Rayna asked firmly, her voice laced with threat.
"Merlin Rayna," Hermione answered disapprovingly, "everyone is not out to get you. You can trust your best friends."
"No, you're right," Rayna said softly, bringing down the thick tension between the three of them, "I'm sorry. I just don't want Dumbledore to get involved just yet; I hope you can understand that."
Hermione smiled back at her before replying, "Of course I can, let's get down to the Great Hall before dinner is over."
Rayna smiled and they all walked down the vast corridors of the castle, eventually making their way to the castle's magnificent hall. Though most students were already there piling their plates with food from the mountains of options cluttering the table, they realized that they had arrived just after dinner had begun and weren't nearly as late as they had assumed.
Rayna walked along the deserted corridors, taking only a few minutes to arrive at her destination: the Room of Requirement. Though she was initially shunned from Dumbledore's Army, Hermione assured her that it had been cleared up with her classmates and that she would be welcome to train with them. Sure, she was still as apprehensive and wary about it as ever, but she knew that it would be beneficial since she didn't have much formal training against the Dark Arts. As she walked up to her destination, a magnificent door began to form out of the wall, coiling itself out of the brick as though it were there all along. Rayna smirked, amazed at the display of magic happening before her.
Though Hermione had instructed her to walk up to the door with her destination in mind –the DA meeting, that is, Rayna had her thoughts set on another topic –her father. The last dream she had seemed to leave a lasting effect, one that wouldn't leave her thoughts no matter how hard she tried. As she thought about the meeting she thought about how much she loathed her classmates, the ones she knew she could defeat but couldn't while still at Hogwarts. She hated them all, and it seemed like every encounter she had with her father only exemplified those feelings.
She walked up to the door, pushing it open before walking through and shutting it behind her with a loud thud. Inside it was so dark that she couldn't see a thing, so she illuminated the tip of her wand, confused as to why she couldn't hear or see anyone familiar even though she had arrived several minutes late. When she finally looked around her, she could see no open room filed with members of Dumbledore's Army, but instead piles and piles of various objects, furniture and items that seemed to fill the entire room. The storage area seemed endless, bringing her nothing but confusion as she walked along the aisles between the mounds of belongings.
In the distance she could hear a sinister hissing that sounded as though it were from another world, yet it seemed oddly familiar to her and she had the sense that she was already acquainted with whatever it was she was feeling. She followed the piercing sound that seemed to ring through her mind, walking down a long aisle until she stood in front of a small table piled with a few items of clutter. She looked down to see an elegant light-brown box, covered in a piece of silky fabric. Pushing the cloth aside, she dusted the top of the box before slowly opening it to look at whatever was inside. Within the box there was an elegant, lavish looking tiara; adorned in several blue jewels and made of shiny silver, Rayna examined it to find the words, "wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," written on the side.
Rayna gasped, realizing the significance of the artifact as she picked it up to further examine it. She no longer worried about her friends or the meeting she was due to attend, instead she was curious to inquire more about the strange diadem she had come across. She stuffed the tiara into a pocket of her robes, shutting the box before making her way back to the door.
"Where were you?" Hermione asked curiously as Rayna caught up to her, Harry and Ron on her way to the Great Hall.
"I told you," Rayna replied calmly, "When I walked through the door to the room of requirement you weren't there. Why would you want to train in a place filled with piles of clutter anyway?"
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked curiously.
"It was a storage room." Rayna replied coldly.
"Of course," Hermione reasoned, "the Room of Requirement always comes equipped with the seekers needs. If Rayna hadn't thought about going to the meeting it may not have taken her there."
"What were you thinking of?" Harry asked suddenly, shooting her an accusing look.
"I wasn't thinking of anything," Rayna lied, realizing at once that she couldn't say she had been thinking about her father and the dream, "I guess I just forgot to think of the meeting when I arrived. It was a simple mistake."
Harry nodded, seeming to buy the lie as they all walked into the Great Hall. Though Rayna was starving, she decided to skip the feast at the last minute, excusing herself as she turned and walked back out the door, much to the confusion of her friends. She walked briskly along the castle's corridors, her robes billowing behind her as she made her way down to the school's library. Her arrival seemed to catch Madame Pince off guard, as she hadn't been expecting anyone to come in during the feast; she seemed even less thrilled as she realized it was Rayna, having always been wary of the girl and the books she chose to read.
"Riddle," Madame Pince said simply as Rayna hastily made her way over to a bookshelf near the other end of the room, "I trust you realize that just because the evening feast is in progress, the restricted section is still guarded."
"Yes ma'am," Rayna replied simply, "though we've never had a problem like that before, so I don't see why we would now."
Nothing more was said as they both went back to what they were doing; Rayna eagerly scanned the spines of books along the shelf and Madame Pince eyed her suspiciously from afar. Rayna finally spotted the one she wanted, a particularly thick biography of Rowena Ravenclaw. She took it out from its place, carrying it over to one of the tables lining the room as she opened it up and began to scan its pages for anything that had anything to do with a diadem.
Eventually she came across a small passage dealing with the myth surrounding an artifact similar to the one she had found locked away within the room of requirement. Though few things jumped out at her there were a couple things that had stuck; it was merely a myth carried down over hundreds of years, not a person alive has seen it, and that it was said to have magical qualities that would enhance the wisdom of the wearer. Rayna found this amusing, though she didn't put much stock into it. It was clear to her that the tiara she had found within the room of requirement was laced with dark magic, something she highly doubted that Rowena Ravenclaw would surround herself with. Rayna closed the book before heading down to the dungeons and into the Slytherin common room, eager to finally get some rest.
Author's Note:
I'm dying to know what you think of this chapter, so please review and tell me what you think. (:
I'm also curious to hear your thoughts on a possible romance building between Rayna and Draco. Too cliché, do you think? Eventually I want to pair her with someone, and I originally thought Draco, but I don't know. It won't be the main focus in the story.
And for those of you who are dying for a darker Rayna, hang in there. I promise you she will end up dark enough to rival her father. I just love dark characters, don't you? (:
