Disclaimer: Mr. H. Potter and the universe in which he resides belongs not to me, but to it's author J.K Rowling.

Interlude 2

'The terror caused by this new breakaway organization, the Death Eaters, appears to have had some blood purity-related motivation, although it also seems likely they were simply a gang of socially higher-up teenagers being pressured into a life of service for Lord Voldemort who simply intended to wreak havoc before disposing of them all. It seems clear now that Lord Voldemort never intended to fulfil any of his political promises to his followers and that likely, none of them were meant to survive the final stages of his ascendancy to power. The War Criminal Hearings in 1999 certainly revealed a brilliant campaign of Imperius and extortion as the usual method of drawing new members, as much as any lofty political promises.'

Griselda Twiddleberk, 'Madman at the Door', Foreword

All excerpts taken from 'Madman at the Door' by Griselda Twiddleberk

'Slytherin is the Dark Wizard famed in Britain for co-founding Hogwarts and famed outside Britain as one of the fathers of wizarding isolationism and his unfortunate mental deterioration in his later years leading to some very odd magic indeed. He is also the founder of the house in which young Riddle was sorted.
Slytherin House has, since the Statute of Secrecy at the latest, been split into distinct groupings of isolationists and wizarding supremacists who share an interest in Dark Magic, rather than purely the Dark isolationists we can deduce mr. Slytherin intended.
Tom Riddle utilizes his knowledge of his ancestry (and his ignorance of the politics thereof, as he himself is quite the supremacist, not unlike the Gaunt men from whom he descends) and discovers Slytherins' hidden chamber underneath the castle, and sets loose the Basilisk hidden within which kills a fellow student in 1943.

This course of events marks the creation of mr. Riddle's first Horcrux and, as many have remarked, his functional departure from being strictly human. He is only 16.'

...

October 31, 1981, Lestrange House, London England

They both wake abruptly from the pain in their left arm. Rodolphus pulls back the sleeve of his tunic, exposing a red and irritated wound, but no Dark Mark. Bellatrix stares at it, then pulls up her own sleeve. Have they been summarily thrown out of their Lord's inner circle? Just like that? With their lives intact?

Something is wrong. The wound festers, oozes like acidic potion, and rapidly distorts and heals, leaving behind a faint trace of the Mark. It is still there. This isn't a punishment, a prelude to death. Their Lord has gone. Something is very wrong indeed.

...

'In the Spring of 1945 Tom Riddle's aforementioned Transfiguration teacher, professor Dumbledore, duels and defeats Gellert Grindelwald, leaving the European continental wizarding communities to reconstruct. This reconstruction is echoed in the Muggle world, where a massive global war has also just ended, leaving large pockets of territory to be seized for wizarding communities. In Britain, the opportunity is taken to finally reclaim properties lost in the hasty retreat into obscurity following the Statute of Secrecy. Given the rather strenuous security efforts already in effect in Wizarding Britain both before and during the Muggle war, the magical community there suffers very few losses from that conflict. Young Tom Riddle, however, must certainly have noticed something going on given his home in a Muggle London orphanage, a place likely to have been evacuated during this time. Stories of the genocide of anyone the Muggles deemed 'different' would certainly have made an impression on him, not least as he knows himself to be both different and unpopular amongst his Muggle peers.'

...

'When mr. Riddle returns to Britain in the late 1950's he begins gathering a terrorist organization, recruiting primarily amongst his old school friends and the Knights of Walpurgis, an isolationist order devoted to protecting wizards from Muggle terrorism. Mr. Riddle tries again to secure a teaching post at Hogwarts and is once again rebuffed, although we can now say it is likely he only interviews for the post in order to hide a Horcrux in the school and to curse the post to which he applied, setting the scene for several generations of British wizards with sub-par defensive magic.

This is also the time when mr. Riddle begins to be exclusively known by his chosen name of Lord Voldemort. His Horcruxes number at least 2, though likely already 5, and his appearance has undergone a drastic transformation. He devotes himself to Dark Arts research and builds a reputation as a political leader in the Knights of Walpurgis, causing a deep rift that splinters the organization.'

...

1966, Hogsmeade, Scotland

Bellatrix snorted into her butterbeer.

'Come on, Evan. You know as well as I do that it's a complete joke.'
'Well, it isn't ideal, but what is? You'll see, darling Bella, when you're older.'
'I will not. They've completely failed us as students and there's really no excuse for that. You've wasted years in DADA without ever learning more than a few shoddy jinxes. It's useless. I'm not just young, I'm bloody factually correct.'
'I've learnt more from the Knights, it's true.'

Evan paused to look out the window, striking a very solemn pose.

'But you're right, Bellatrix. It's a dangerous world out there. Someone has to teach us to defend ourselves.'
'Too right. I don't want to be caught helpless when the muggles find us, that's for certain.'

...

'When a wealthy pureblood child whose family is in good standing in society becomes first Slytherin Prefect, later a successful businessman and then board member of the Governors of Hogwarts, one does not tend to expect them to be a likely terrorist. In fact, it is difficult to understand why someone with such ready access to state power would seek violent means of destroying that state. However, this is indeed the case of one mr. Lucius Malfoy.'

...

'Of course, the addition of such a political animal was very useful for Voldemort at this stage, as he was attempting to build up a network of spies to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, but Lucius Malfoy was never really in Voldemorts pocket. A man with his own ambitions, Lucius Malfoys handling of the precarious situation he found himself in turned ultimately deadly for Voldemort. Indeed, one might argue that Lucius Malfoy and the Black family were as instrumental in Voldemorts ultimate defeat as were Harry Potter or Albus Dumbledore, however their intentions.'

...

'When Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black got engaged in 1973, the already sensitive situation became quite precarious for the Black family, which was already embroiled in its own internal intrigue.'

...

1996 Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire England

'Mother left the country, Bellatrix. Do you not remember that?' Narcissa looked down at her sister.

Confusion bled into Bellatrix's features.

'I... I don't remember very much from... well, before.'
'It doesn't matter. She has refused to see you.'

Bellatrix reacted the only way she reacted to anything those days. She screamed.

...

'The Black family succession is recorded by a magical tapestry in the family headquarters in London. When Voldemort was gathering his army, there were only two direct families left, and they had the bare minimum of children: Cygnus and Druella Black had three daughters and Orion and Walburga Black had two sons. Orion and Walburga occupied the family headquarters with Pollux Black, Walburgas' father and previous head of the family and their remaining son.'

...

'When the engagement was announced in 1973, Mr. Malfoy was already suspected of being involved in quite some nasty business, and of his guilt or innocence, Narcissa Black refused to speak. There went the political hopes of the youngest daughter, set firmly on a rather risky bet, although not one the Black family altogether disapproved of, had it not been for the rest of the situation.

Whilst Narcissa was now engaged to suspected Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, Andromeda had run off not long after graduation from Hogwarts to marry muggleborn Ted Tonks in 1971, giving birth to a daughter in 1972. Andromeda was thus out of the family as well as the succession.
The eldest daughter of the House of Black had married childhood friend and possible second-generation Death Eater Rodolphus Lestrange shortly thereafter, and while perfectly respectable, her situation was a political dead-end as well.

Sirius Black, the heir apparent, had been a Gryffindor, an all-round rebel, and had run away from home at age 15 and promptly joined Albus Dumbledore's guerilla group, the Order of the Phoenix. He was already out of the succession and the family.
The last male heir, Regulus, went ahead and joined the Death Eaters in an apparent attempt at restoring the family name, a rather bizarre misstep.

When the sons of the House of Black both went in the wrong direction, Orion barricaded the house, made it Unplottable, and he and his wife Walburga went into hiding. The Dark Magic in the house eventually overtook them, and they both died rather prematurely, but not before getting word that their son Regulus was dead, likely at the hands of the organization he had joined. There goes the last heir, leaving only Bellatrix and Narcissa as possible heirs, should Sirius never return to the fold.

To anyone outside the Black family, the situation might not look so dire, but to anyone inside it? They were supposed to be the most staunchly isolationist family in the wizarding world, and not one of the children had followed the family line, except one.

However, now that the apparent heir was Bellatrix Lestrange, her situation was really quite suspicious when looked at more closely.
Bellatrix's mother, Druella Black, was born Druella Rosier. The Rosier family had also lost a son to the Death Eater movement, likely persuaded to avenge the defeat of Grindelwald, then being locked in. His name was Evan Rosier, and he had been a good friend to eldest daughter Bellatrix. Rodolphus's brother Rabastan was an openly sympathetic supremacist, and their father had certainly run with Voldemort in school (a boy Orion, Cygnus, Druella and Walburga all remembered from their time in school with Tom Riddle even if few others did). Things were not looking good, however much Bellatrix and Rodolphus seemingly distanced themselves from any active political involvement at this time. Then Lucius Malfoy was exposed as a certain Death Eater right around the time Narcissa announced her pregnancy in 1979, clinching the succession in favour of the Lestranges either way.

Then, of course, came 1981, changing everything.

When Walburga Black died in 1985, the House of Black stood empty.'

...

June 1998

'It isn't... well, it isn't going to work, is it?'
'N-no, Ron. I don't think so.'

They both stared at their knees, letting the tension tighten and loosen on its own.

'Can't we just... not try so hard to make it that, then?'
'Just let it be whatever it is, you mean?'
'Yeah...' he looked distinctly sheepish.

Relief washed over her.

'We could be just friends again, but, you know, friends who get... carried away sometimes.' He looked somewhat stricken he'd even said it, and hastened to add, 'If you want.'

She laughed.

'I'd love to be friends and get carried away sometimes, Ron. People shouldn't get married just because it's expected.'

...

'In the autumn of 1991, Lord Voldemort returned to Hogwarts, whilst Harry Potter began his schooling there. Since Voldemort had hidden at least one Horcrux in the castle, and another was now returning to that building, when he himself entered the castle, body or no body, Hogwarts contained a fairly large concentration of Voldemorts soul. The new proximity of Voldemort caused a lot of activity in the Horcruxes, but only one person had enough information to truly notice this. Former Death Eater Lucius Malfoy noticed a certain diary in his possession starting to draw his attention. He started noticing his Dark Mark reacting to proximity with said diary. He became,to put it mildly, very interested in any changes in wizarding Britain, especially as it concerned Harry Potter.'

...

'The explanations Headmaster Dumbledore gave the Board of Governors at the end of the year regarding the odd death of Professor Quirrel, the security breaches around the Philosopher's Stone in the school's possession, and the odd intuition of 11-year old Harry Potter to have gone after Quirrel, who was presumably trying to steal the Stone... well, Lucius Malfoy drew his own conclusions.'

...

'He made his deliberations with his wife. He was overheard by their abused house-elf, Dobby, who tried to warn and protect Harry Potter over the next several years until his death in 1997. It is clear now that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy did not want to return to their Death Eater days, wherever their politics lay, but saw little choice if their Dark Lord returned. As such, they devised a plan to hedge their bets. Taking the opportunity as soon as it presented itself, they sent the diary off with an innocent bystander, 11-year old Ginny Weasley, and fortified their political ties with the Ministry. Should Voldemort return, the diary could be passed off as an attempt to bring him back faster, they reasoned, and if he never returned they'd just rid themselves of burdensome evidence. Of course, they didn't truly know what the diary was.'

...

'Little Ginny Weasley was a lonely, sheltered child who was taken in by the diary frightfully easily. She opened the Chamber of Secrets, Salazar Slytherins ancient lair underneath the castle where he had stashed, of all possible weapons against enemies to the school, a Basilisk. Harry Potter got in to the Chamber and killed the Basilisk, saving Ginny Weasleys life and Professor Dumbledore's career.

Lucius Malfoy had, if nothing else, succeeded in ridding himself of his last vestige of Death Eater-dom which the Ministry of Magic could discover. Over the next two years he crafted a careful political image, played up his supremacist leanings, and generally set himself up so as to not be completely discounted once Voldemort returned. It was a brilliant move: obviously Death Eater, obviously not Death Eater. Bet firmly hedged, indeed.'

...

'All signs pointed increasingly to a return. While Dumbledore spent the next years setting himself up friendly with anyone he suspected could be convinced to follow his orders, the situation became increasingly uncomfortable for all involved.

Voldemort secured a rather extraordinary feat in his magical arsenal in June 1995 when he created a new body. Most of the credit must of course be given to his servant, Peter Pettigrew, who actually did most of the magic. Peter Pettigrew was a turncoat who was lured into the Death Eater organization without any political goals, and he spent the rest of his life paying rather steeply for that mistake. Never considered a true Death Eater, but with no way to return to the other side. Forgiveness, in the end, seemed a stronger force within the Death Eaters than the Order of the Phoenix.'

...

'The biggest mysteries of the inner workings of the Death Eater organization still lies with Bellatrix Lestrange, who has not been capable or willing to offer much testimony or evidence post-war. She undoubtedly knows more than most, being the most senior Death Eater to survive the conflict.'


Reviews much appreciated! This is the final stretch before we get into the fun stuff :)