Hey Lovelies! So this is the next chapter of Light's Dark Mistress, and I have to admit this one is slow, and kind of a filler, but we can't totally disregard the threat Minnie made last chapter can we! Either way, Enjoy!
Chapter 10 – Secrets and Lies
Minerva was sitting next to her husband at his table. This was one of the few meetings that she had decided to sit in on since she had returned to his side. His immediate concerns were trivial, and she saw no need to send anything she was hearing here back to the Order.
She had only agreed to sit here tonight as a courtesy. There were other things on her mind, things that she deemed a more important use of her time. A knock on the drawing room door pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Peter Pettigrew looking slightly scared in the doorway. Tom appeared to not notice the interruption.
"Come here Peter." Her voice carried easily over the top of her husbands and he fell silent as the tiny, shaking man made his way towards his wife. He nodded in acknowledgement of the man when he came to a stop, and Minerva fixed him with a peering look. "What do you need Peter?"
"I'm sorry for the interruption My Lady." He turned to Tom. "My Lord." He bowed a little before facing her once more. "This has just arrived for you Ma'am. It says urgent." He held out a letter and she took it from him with a nod of dismissal. Quickly the rat-like man scurried out of the room closing the door behind him.
Minerva opened the note and was surprised to see that it contained only one line. "It didn't take two weeks." She smiled softly to herself and then looked up at her husband. "If you would excuse me, there is someplace else that I need to be."
He understood her meaning, even if the rest of those around the table did not and he nodded to her. "Will you be returning?" He reached for her hand and kissed first her knuckles and then her diamond.
"Yes." She lowered her chin out of respect. "I'll be back tonight."
"Then I shall wait for you." With a smile Minerva stood and swept out of the room.
"You found them?" She had barely made it across the wards surrounding what was left of the Burrow before she asked the question.
"We did." Kingsley answered her with a nod. "No one has approached them, they don't know that we found them, but they went to Sirius's."
"They're in London?" Her eyebrows shot up. "I would have expected them to travel further than that."
"It seems as if what ever their task is they need to stay close." Arthur smiled a little bit when she turned to look at him. "Yes, we know that they are up to something, and I'm assuming that now that Dumbledore is gone you are the only one that knows what that is."
"I do." She nodded, "And you're right. They have their reasons for staying close. You were right not to make contact with them. Let them think that they are out on their own, but keep an eye on them if you can. Do not loose them again."
"Yes Ma'am." Kingsley and Remus nodded and Minerva relaxed a little bit.
"What else do you have to report?" They all began to fill her in on everything that had happened in the week since she had last been in contact with them.
Hermione was pouring through the book that she had pulled from the shelf in the library. She had read everything that she could on horcruxes, she knew the prophecy word for word, but that wasn't getting them anywhere.
Harry was off somewhere in the house, probably sitting in Sirius's old room, and Ron was watching the Ministry. They were planning to break in, planning to steal the locket from Umbridge. That miserable woman just couldn't stay out of the way.
Hermione replaced the book she had been looking through to its shelf it wasn't holding her interest. She walked along the rows letting her hand trail over the spines until something like a shock raced from her fingers through her system.
She shook her hand out as the sensation rolled away and then she reached for the book. Pulling it off the shelf she was surprised to see that it was a genealogy of the Peverell family. An odd thing to have in the Black family library she thought as she settled back into her armchair.
As she began to read through it she understood more fully why it was there. Traced far enough back many of the pureblood families were somehow distantly related to the three Peverell brothers. What surprised her most was that for as old as the book appeared to be the family trees held within seemed to be up to date.
She traced her finger over the line that ended with Harry James Potter, born July 31st, 1980. She had just finished reading the story of the Tale of the Three Brothers and she was surprised to find that they were in fact real people. Harry's family descended from the youngest brother.
She traced her finger over the line from the middle brother. She was startled to see that the Gaunt's were a part of the Peverell line. She ran a finger over the name Tom Marvolo Riddle pausing when she reached the line that connected it to a name that was still hard for her to fathom, Minerva Isobel Riddle neé McGonagall. Her eyes fell closed for a moment as she took a deep breath, the woman she considered her mentor had lied. All of these years she had been lying to them, and a part of Hermione couldn't blame her for it.
When she reopened her eyes she had to look again. She had expected the line to stop there. For Tom Riddle to be the last name on that branch of the tree, but it wasn't. There, one step below Tom and Minerva was another name. Vayda Minerva Riddle, born July 31st, 1980. Hermione gasped. They had a child, and she shared Harry's birthday…
Minerva swept through their bedroom discarding her outer robes as she went. She could hear the water running the bathroom and she wanted to see him. She needed to see him after the afternoon that she had had.
The Order wanted to talk of nothing more than how they were going to stop him, how they were going to take down the Darkness. What they didn't see, what she couldn't tell them, was that they were focusing on the wrong thing. They didn't need to end her husband to end the war. She knew that he could be called upon to quit by words alone. Her words anyway.
No, it was his followers. The Death Eaters, the ones that had decided that they could do just as much if not more damage than their leader. It was those few, the ones that were starting to think for themselves that they needed to target. Madam Lestrange being at the top of the list.
She placed her hand between his shoulder blades as she stepped up behind him. He turned to look at her and smiled. "Well? How did your meeting go?"
"Fine." She smiled, "Nothing knew to report. You'd think that after a week they would have something to tell me."
He narrowed his eyes at her, "If they had nothing why did they summon you?"
"I have no idea. Believe me, it wasn't in their best interests." She smiled darkly at him, hiding her lie behind her bewitching, emerald eyes. "Though I think I do know what may be in yours."
"Oh?" His face relaxed and he gave her an easy smile. It was the kind of expression that he reserved solely for her. "And what might that be?"
"Come find out." She back slowly away from him, undoing her robes as she went.