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Dark Matter
Chapter Four: Genesis
They come to see the fire burning in your heart.
They want to witness this love from the start.
They hear you when you cry; this love is far and wide.
When you smile, the stars align,
flower of the universe and child of mine.
Flower of the Universe - Sade (No I.D. Remix)
We're confined to be apart, to take sides in divided cells.
We collide when we depart; don't ask me what's the cost, I don't know myself.
I'm found out if all I do is hide between the lines, an outsider at the door.
I'm unbound, foreign on a path forever mine.
Outsider - Blanco White
Tom folded his last set of school robes and placed them on the stack of already-folded clothes in his trunk. He straightened back up and looked around his dormitory. He was alone, his roommates having already headed downstairs to for the End-of-Term Feast. They had wanted to wait for him, but he waved them ahead, saying he would catch up when he was done packing.
Looking around the room he had lived in for most of the past seven years, a heavy feeling settled over him. He reached out and touched the green curtains of his bed. This school had been his home, in ways the orphanage never had. It was here he had learned how powerful he could be, here he had finally learned who he really was, finally learned his destiny. And now it was time to leave.
Turning, he glanced around to see if he had forgotten to pack anything. He looked under the bed, found nothing, then turned to his bedside table. He pulled out his wand and undid the Sticking Charm he had placed on the drawer so that it couldn't be opened. There was also a Curse on it of his own invention, but it would only affect someone other than himself who was nosy and foolish enough to undo the Sticking Charm. Then he pulled the drawer open.
Inside, he kept the things he wanted no one else to see. His diary, his first Horcrux, a piece of his soul, lay there. Loads of parchment, filled with his notes on Horcruxes, necromancy, the left-handed path, and ritualistic Dark magic no one needed to find. Underneath these things, his first letter from Hogwarts, handed to him by Albus Dumbledore, telling him he'd been accepted, his first proof that he was in some way exceptional. He removed these items, then swept his hand to the back of the drawer. His fingers brushed something soft, which he grasped and pulled out. An emerald green quill with a silver serpent on it, a gift from Luna Lovegood.
Sitting on his bed, setting the parchment, letter, and diary to the side, he inspected the quill. He hadn't looked at it in well over a year. Luna had said goodbye. He had thrown the quill into the back of the drawer the same day. He had not gone looking for it since.
Picking up his wand again, he tapped the silver snake, causing it to slither up the quill. He watched the snake's progress for a moment, and allowed his mind to wander. The familiar feeling, as if a vacuum existed in his chest, returned. He raised his wand again, intending to incinerate the quill, but then he hesitated. No, perhaps he would keep it. It would serve as a reminder of the utter foolishness he had displayed when it came to the girl. Remind him to never make those same mistakes again.
Tom stood back up, carrying these last of his belongings and adding them to the trunk. He shut the trunk, transferred the Curse on the bedside table to the trunk, then peered in the mirror by the door. Wearing his black school robes, Slytherin tie around his neck, Head Boy badge pinned to his chest, he brushed his hair back carefully, then removed a bit of lint from his sleeve. With a last glance around the dormitory, he headed up to the Great Hall for the feast.
Somewhere between the dungeons and the Great Hall, his practiced demeanor, worthy of Hogwarts' Head Boy and top student, had worked its way back onto his face, and it was with a confident smile that he entered the feast, where most of the students were already assembled. The Hall was decorated in the silver and green of Tom's house, as Slytherin had won the House Cup for the year, thanks in no small part to Tom himself.
"There he is!" cried one of the Slytherins as he entered, and many heads turned along the table to greet him. Sitting down, he engaged in conversation with his Housemates until Headmaster Dippet stood up, asking all the seventh years to make their way to the front of the Hall for the graduation ceremony.
Dippet called each of the seventh years' names one at a time, calling them forward to shake his hand to the applause of the student body and faculty. As Head Boy, Tom's name was called last, just after the Head Girl's, and there was a noticeable crescendo in cheers, particularly from the Slytherin table, as he swept forward to shake the Headmaster's hand.
"Well, done, Riddle," Dippet said, gripping Tom's hand. "Rarely has Hogwarts seen such a talented student. I do apologize again that I'm not prepared to give you the Dark Arts job, as we discussed, you're just a bit too young. But not to worry - I am certain you will go on to do great things, great things indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if you were Minister of Magic some day!"
Tom's smile returned, and he offered a slight bow to his Headmaster in respect. "I understand completely, sir. Thank you very much."
The following morning, as the other students piled into the thestral-pulled carriages to go back to the train, the freshly-graduated seventh years boarded the small boats they had sailed across the lake to start their first year at Hogwarts. A morning fog was on the lake, lending a ghostly light to their departure, and Tom stared up at the castle as they moved across the glassy water, watching the only home he had ever known move farther and farther away.
Madam Pomfrey held a goblet to Luna's lips. "Drink it, you'll be in less pain."
Sweat beading on her forehead as she lay in a bed in the Hospital Wing, Luna drank the potion. Immediately, the labor pains dulled and she felt more able to think clearly.
Ginny Weasley stood anxiously at her bedside, brown eyes full of concern. They had been at the Halloween feast, when Luna had suddenly stood up, crossed the Hall to Gryffindor table, and laid a hand on Ginny's shoulder. "I believe my baby is coming right now," she said, voice distant, her other hand resting gently on rounded belly. Ginny had popped up immediately from her seat and escorted her to the Hospital Wing.
They were seventh years now, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville had graduated a few months prior. As such, it was only Ginny and Madam Pomfrey who were hovering over her as she prepared to give birth.
Luna had dutifully gone to Madam Pomfrey weekly to drink her prenatal potions. At the end of the school year in June, before Luna had gone back to stay at Grimmauld Place with Harry for the summer for her own protection, Madame Pomfrey had taught her to brew the potion herself. "Don't forget to take it," the nurse had said sternly. "I won't have you coming back in September round as crystal ball and telling me you've been neglecting your prenatal care for months." After reassuring the witch she would remember her potion, Madam Pomfrey had looked at her with pursed lips, her general disapproval giving way to motherly concern. "Are you certain you don't want to know the gender before you go?"
"I'm sure," Luna had replied.
"Breathe, Luna," Ginny said in the present moment. The red-headed witch grasped Luna's hand in her own, and Luna felt a surge of gratefulness at her presence.
Less than an hour later, the process no doubt sped along by Madam Pomfrey's skilled Healer magic, Luna heard a cry and Madame Pomfrey said, "Well done, my dear, you've done it!"
Luna collapsed backwards into her pillows, sweating even with the pain-killing potion and Madam Pomfrey's attentive care and assistance. The nurse busily inspected the crying baby, waving her wand over it, cleaning it up. Then Madam Pomfrey wrapped the child in a blanket, calming its cries, and crossed to Luna. Luna easily found the energy to sit up again, and Ginny leaned forward expectantly as Madam Pomfrey laid the swaddled infant in Luna's arms.
The moment Luna laid eyes on her baby, the world seemed to stop. Tears budded along her lower eyelids then freely fell down her cheeks, dripping onto the child's blanket. The softest black curls were sprinkled across the baby's scalp and enormous grey eyes stared up out of a tiny face. Luna's heart felt it would nearly explode. All the fears and doubts that had plagued her pregnancy fell away. In that moment, it seemed that everything in her entire life had brought her to here, to hold her child, to protect her child, to love her child.
"Congratulations," Madam Pomfrey said. "You've had a daughter."
Ginny was grinning uncontrollably. "Luna, she's lovely. She has your eyes."
Luna felt she had lost the ability to speak, and she was unable to tear her eyes away from her daughter's face. The baby made the smallest noise, and Luna's heart swelled even further.
"What will you name her, my dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked, discreetly wiping away a tear.
Without missing a beat, the name came to her, and Luna found her voice again, saying softly, "Violetta." She had not decided on names ahead of time, but looking at her daughter now, there seemed to be no other name possible.
"Violetta Lovegood," Madam Pomfrey said, then moved to write it down on the magical birth certificate she had prepared. "Born the thirty-first of October, at thirteen minutes to nine o'clock in the evening, in the year 1998. Mother, Luna Pandora Lovegood. Father, unknown. A middle name, my dear?"
Luna hesitated. "No. No middle name."
Later that night, after Ginny had gone to send owls to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville then off to bed, and Madam Pomfrey had retired to her private quarters, Luna bent low over the cot in which Violetta lay sleeping. She watched the infant's tiny chest rise and fall. She counted ten fingers and thumbs on her two little hands, with the littlest of nails. Luna brushed a hand along her daughter's head, touching the soft black hair there, then touched one of the baby's hands. In her sleep, Violetta grasped her mother's finger with the hand, closing around the end of Luna's finger.
A smile came to Luna's face. She supposed there was nothing in the entire world, not a magical creature proven to exist or otherwise, which was as astonishingly unbelievable as her daughter. "You're my universe," she whispered, and Violetta slept soundly, as though she already knew.
Caractacus Burke smoothed his greasy hair back and peered at the young man standing before him on the opposite side of the shop counter. Burke glanced down at the parchment again. "You want to work here?" he finally said suspiciously.
Tom Riddle nodded, standing straight, hands clasped behind his back. He glanced around the shop, making note of the variety of disturbing items for sale in the glass case to his left and the full-size mummified corpse displayed in a sarcophagus propped open behind the counter.
"What for?" Burke asked. He shook the parchment at Tom. "Top of all your classes? The strongest letters of recommendation from your professors? Why do you want to work in my shop?"
"I suspect my employment might be mutually beneficial, Mr. Burke," Tom said smoothly, looking down his nose at the parchment being waved in his face.
"In what way?" Burke demanded, setting the parchment aside.
Tom fought back impatience. "You will come to find I can be quite persuasive. I'm sure I can not only sell well for you, but also obtain valuable product for you."
Burke narrowed his eyes. "What's in it for you, boy?"
A lazy smile curled its way onto Tom's mouth. "Access, Mr. Burke."
"Good night, Luna," Hermione said, kissing Luna's cheek. "It was lovely to see you!" Hermione knelt to the ground, where a little girl, black hair gathered into two buns on the sides of her head and tied with little red bows, stood staring up at her. "And happy birthday again, Miss Violetta," Hermione said to the girl, kissing her as well.
Violetta threw her arms around Hermione. "Bye bye, Aunt Minny!" she said.
Luna turned to Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Neville who stood in front of the fireplace, preparing to leave. "Thank you again for coming, Violetta and I enjoyed having you all here," she said.
Harry looked down at the little girl, who was now inspecting the engagement ring on Hermione's finger with great interest. "I can't believe she's already two years old," he said.
"I can't either," Ginny agreed. "I remember her being born like it was yesterday."
Once they had all exchanged hugs and kisses, Luna scooped her daughter up and placed her on her hip. Harry was the last to step into the fireplace to Floo back to London. He pulled out his Dumbledore's Army coin. "Remember, Luna. We're all just moments away from you, if you need us." He looked to Violetta, then back to Luna. "Have to keep my goddaughter safe," he added with a smile.
Returning his smile, Luna nodded. "I know. Thank you, Harry. We'll see you soon. Happy Halloween."
Harry stepped into the fire and disappeared, leaving Luna and her daughter alone in the room.
"All right, my little love, it is well past your bedtime," Luna told her daughter. "Did you enjoy your birthday party?"
After over two years from the front page article in The Daily Prophet regarding Professor Trelawney's most recent Prophecy, some of the fervor had died down. Initially, there had been a great deal of fear and uproar about the idea of Voldemort's heir amongst them, not to mention dozens of theories on who or where the heir and his mother might be. The most popular theories were certainly that the mother was a Death Eater, one of the ones still on the run from the Ministry. Curiously, most of the theories seemed focused on a male heir, although the Prophecy had never specified the child's gender. Luna and the Order members were somewhat grateful for this, as it seemed to make Violetta even less suspicious.
Kingsley Shacklebolt, as Minister of Magic, had done an admirable job at quelling some of the anxiety in the Wizarding world following the Prophecy. He assured them that there was no immediate danger from an infant, and when the problem arose - if the problem arose, he was careful to say - the Ministry would be prepared to handle it. Indeed, his Aurors, headed by Tonks, quickly quelled any wizards who thought it wise to go around threatening mothers with young children for information. Over time, as life seemed to move on largely unchanged following the Prophecy, most people stopped thinking and worrying about it so much - if anything were to come of it, it was out of their hands for now.
Luna and Violetta, after Luna's graduation from Hogwarts, had been living a fairly nomadic life. Luna had been hired as an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries, assisted in obtaining this position by Kingsley. She was tasked with traveling the globe and researching the magical traditions of ancient peoples, regarding everything from healing, love, and consciousness, to the soul, time, and death. She was currently stationed in Peru, studying Incan magic, and previously had been in Ethiopia, Hawaii, and Iran. It was not the Magizoology career she had dreamed of as a student, but it was an ideal arrangement: it was not only fascinating, something that allowed Luna ample opportunity to collect information that interested both her and the Department of Mysteries, but it also allowed her the protection of a top-secret Ministry position, keeping her location unknown and in flux.
For although the Wizarding world at large had, at least for the time being, allowed the thought of the Dark Lord's heir to fall out of immediate prominence, Voldemort's most faithful followers had not. As Luna and the Order had predicted, Bellatrix and the Death Eaters knew precisely who the mother of Voldemort's heir was.
The Auror department's hunt for the former Death Eaters fortunately kept them in the shadows, but Luna's first couple of months after graduation, when she and Violetta were living in London, were fraught with fear. Twice Luna had come face-to-face with Bellatrix during that time, narrowly escaping through the help of the Order, and each time, they had had to relocate.
When Luna got her first assignment in Ethiopia, Harry had expressed concern about Luna going by herself, but eventually it was decided there was little else to do. Luna and Violetta could not live under lock and key, and they could hardly hope for a more ideal job for her than one in which no one was permitted to disclose her location.
Harry and the Order did insist, however, that the Ministry provide Luna with additional protection. Kingsley and Tonks directly arranged for an Auror bodyguard to be with Luna at all times, on all her assignments. As Harry and Ron were still in their training process and not yet certified Aurors, a young man, only a few years older older than Luna herself, named Doyle Huxley, was chosen for the job.
Doyle now poked his curly-haired head out of his room on the lower level of the house as Luna carried Violetta towards the stairs to the upper floor. "How was the party?" he asked. He was a tall, thin man, eager to prove himself in his department.
"Lovely," Luna replied. "You didn't have to stay in your room, though, you could have joined us."
Doyle shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked at the ground. "That's very kind of you, Miss Lovegood, but I thought it would be nice for you to spend some time with your friends without me lurking in the corner." He looked up, eyes falling on Violetta. A strange look came over his face temporarily. "Did she have fun?" he asked, the look fading away as quickly as it had appeared.
The brief expression on Doyle's face did not go unnoticed by Luna, but she was unable to pinpoint the exact emotion it had been. Her inherent trusting nature was tinged with suspicion in the interest of protecting her child these days, and she paused to assess the man for a moment. So far, over the past year or so, he had always been kind to her, as well as to Violetta, and he had taken his job seriously, going so far as to place anti-Apparition charms on the residence to keep anyone from Apparating in or out and taking them by surprise.
She had no real reason not to trust him, and yet…over the past couple of months, ever since they had come to their newest assignment, she had found herself having a difficult time letting her guard down around him. It did not help assuage this new paranoid side of her that Othello was now refusing to leave Doyle alone with Violetta. Still, that part of her which was still herself, the part which wanted to see the best in anyone, prevented her from saying anything to Harry about it. Indeed, what would she say? That her pet didn't trust the man, so he had to be fired?
Luna shook herself mentally. It had been a struggle to remain herself over the past couple of years, between the loss of her father, the loss of Tom, and the need to protect Violetta. She would not let herself become bitter, fearful, and unduly distrustful.
Offering Doyle a smile, Luna said, "She did. Didn't you Violetta?"
The little girl in her arms giggled and smiled at Doyle, nodding.
Bidding Doyle goodnight, Luna carried Violetta upstairs. Changing her out of her red party dress and into pajamas, Luna then tucked her into her crib. "Story, Mummy," Violetta said, sitting up.
Luna acquiesced, beginning to recite the story of "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" from The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She did not get far before Violetta's eyes began to droop. As Luna talked in a dreamy voice about the father of the tale bequeathing the pot to his son, Violetta murmured sleepily, "What's father?"
Heart stopping in her chest, Luna's voice faltered in her story, flashes of Tom's face in her mind. "Darling, it's time for sleep now, and we can discuss that another time," she said after a moment.
Violetta did not respond; she had already dozed off.
Luna watched her daughter sleep for a moment. Violetta had not asked about Tom in any way before, though now that she was learning more and more words every day, Luna suspected it was only a matter of time. The child was quite precocious and loved stories, and it was inevitable that she would become acquainted with the concept of fatherhood in one way or another.
A great deal of thought had already been put into what Luna was going to say to Violetta about her father, just as a great deal of thought had been put into deciding against using the Time-Turner. This decision was further cemented by Violetta herself. Luna wanted the best for her daughter. Though Luna was admittedly, on occasion, reckless with her own well-being in regards to where she placed her love or trust, she could not afford to be so with Violetta at risk as well; walking with her daughter directly back into the life of the most powerful Dark wizard to ever exist seemed hardly like good parenting. And also, even if Tom never harmed Violetta directly, a fear occasionally wriggled its way into Luna's brain, though she tried to silence it, regarding the Prophecy and what exactly would come of Violetta if she were under her father's direct influence.
Through Violetta's curiosity and unguarded nature, Luna saw herself in her daughter, but there was no question at times who the child's father was. Not just in her black hair, not just in her nose, but the child had been showing a proclivity towards magic for some time already, could be tremendously stubborn even by a toddler's standards, and there were times when she threw tantrums that the very building seemed to shake beneath her little feet.
And, though Luna had not yet told Harry or her other friends this yet, it was just the other day that she had found Violetta near the door of their current home, which bordered the edges of the Peruvian cloud forest, surrounded by half a dozen snakes, with short hissing sounds coming from her mouth as she clapped and laughed. The snakes had not once moved to harm Violetta; indeed, they seemed to only want to be near her. Still, Luna had scooped the child up and levitated the snakes back outside with her wand, despite her daughter's protests.