Noble
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Chapter 10
Disclaimer: Me no own
AN: Sorry for the delay.
§Malfoy Manor, a couple of weeks later§
Rai swished his tea around in his cup, a satisfied smile on his face as he brought it to his lips.
He was at his servant's home, and they were currently seated in the extravagantly decorated lounge. The room was decked in dark colors with hints of silver and white appearing as the light from the newly installed electric bulbs in the chandeliers hit them.
As expected, Frankenstein, now known as Lucius Malfoy, outdid himself. Rai could always count on his faithful servant to know just what he needed. Speaking of which, he needed to get an update on how his newest servant, Marvolo (formerly Lord Voldemort, notorious Snake-Face), was faring.
"Compliments on the tea, Frankenstein. Marvolo, how is your training going? Are you able to keep up?"
The most feared Dark Lord in modern Wizarding history lifted his head up, his face the picture of desperation. The man had looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown, with deep dark circles blemishing his handsome face. He also had an assortment of bruises of various colors and sizes covering likely his entire body, as they were visible to Rai as the disappeared underneath the clothing.
Until Rai had called on him, the poor man had been rocking back and forth on the floor before he had curled into a fetal position. Rai winced in slight sympathy and sent Frankenstein a reprimanding look. The latter had the sense to look somewhat ashamed.
Nevertheless, even if his newly acquired servant looked somewhat beat up, Rai knew that the man had improved leaps and bounds. The biggest testimony to this being that Rai couldn't hear his thoughts even with him being in this condition.
Clearing his throat, Marvolo uncurled himself from his fetal position, before he stood up and bowed to Rai. Frankenstein looked on with a glint of approval entering his deep blue eyes.
"Senior Frankenstein has been training with me for the last few weeks, though months would likely be a better term, as we have used time turners quite generously." Rai shot Frankenstein another sharp look. Time-turners were dangerous, and Fate hated them with a passion. The amount of raw, natural magic that was lost during a single minute of such usage would likely be equal to that of the amount of magic that was upholding the wards of Hogwarts. Which would have been fine if it didn't leave a trace on the existence of magic itself.
He would certainly be having a word with his servant afterward. Frankenstein felt shiver through his body.
Frankenstein, on his part, felt a shiver through his body. His master had never sent such a disapproving look, not even when he had been creating trouble for his master by fighting the Clan leaders.
Rai turned his attention back towards Marvolo, who had been watching their silent interaction curiously.
"Why are you still standing? Sit. Now, on to important matters. I want you, Marvolo, to apply for the Defence position at Hogwarts. Your backstory will be that you are a bastard son of Voldemort- one that he had no idea existed. Your mother raised you in complete secrecy for fear that Voldemort might convert you to a murdering psychopath. Also that she was a muggle-born. Is that acceptable?" Marvolo blinked in surprise before his face broke into a genuine smile. Aspirations for world-dominance aside, he had always wanted to teach! He nodded eagerly to show that yes, it was acceptable. in fact, it was more than acceptable. Rai smiled slightly at seeing the enthusiasm of his servant.
"Frankenstein will provide you with the necessary documents to prove your identity. As for Dumbledore, don't worry. He wholeheartedly believes that Voldemort is dead. The disappearance of the Dark Mark on your followers was enough to convince. him. It will also be easier for us to meet up if you're at Hogwarts. That aside, I want to see how much you've progressed." Rai reminded Marvolo. The former Dark Lord immediately turned serious.
"What would you have me do?" Rai thought for a moment before he answered.
"Your weakness seems to be that of physical combat. But I also want to see how much you've progressed with the powers you have newly acquired. As such, I want you to penetrate my shield just using your new powers. Keep in mind that you cannot use the same attack twice. If you manage to break my shield, we'll have a physical spar." Marvolo nodded. That seemed to be a reasonable test. He immediately fell into a stance, powering up. The room shook. Frankenstein's eyes widened.
"Not here, Marvolo! If you break any of the decorative items here, Narcissa will skin us alive! Master, why don't I show you the dueling room?" Rai blinked before he subtly hid a smile. Marvolo had no such inhibitions as he snorted inelegantly.
Though Frankenstein was vastly different from Lucius in some aspects, he was very much in love with his wife, and much involved in his son's life as he would have been otherwise.
Both Narcissa and Draco knew about the changes that happened to Lucius and were the only other people in the know about the Mission.
At first, they had trouble adjusting to Lucius's personality changes but soon found that the changes were mostly for the better. In fact, Draco had grown closer to his father, as Lucius had been a cold taskmaster at best. Even though Draco had nothing lacking materialistically, he had always longed for a father that would treat him warmly. Frankenstein however, had been a much warmer father and even though he didn't spoil Draco as much.
Narcissa had forbidden him from entering their bedroom when Lucius had first told her of his true self. She had felt that someone else was occupying her husband's body, and had almost hated Frankenstein at first. Slowly though, she came to realize just how alike this new version of her husband was to the older version.
And how much better he was than her husband.
Truth to be told, Narcissa had not really loved Lucius. His treatment of those below him and his son always put her on guard. And Narcissa was sure Lucius hadn't loved her either. He had respected her and listened to her advice when she saw it fit to intervene, but he'd never loved her. This sudden change had forced the two of them to interact on a whole other level, and Narcissa had found herself falling for the man that she realized was still her husband, but so much more.
Frankenstein, for his part, had not calculated that he would be falling in love. But one look at Narcissa and he knew he was gone. He'd readily agreed to everything she'd suggested. And he loved Draco too. Even if the boy had been spoiled too much.
He supposed it came from his longing for a family of his own, not to mention that no matter what Narcissa believed, Lucius had been head over heels for her- he just didn't know how to show his emotions. Frankenstein's original family had died a horrible death at the hand of a plague. It was one of the reasons he'd become so invested in science and then power. So he was happy to have finally found someone he could truly love.
Marvolo thought the whole thing was a cosmic joke and had dismissed it with that. While he was happy that his pseudo-nephew had been able to finally open up, he didn't quite understand the concept of love, and probably never would. All thanks to the way he was conceived. Strangely though, after his soul had been reunited, he had begun to feel more of these positive emotions. Before he had chosen to rip his own soul apart, the only emotion that had even vaguely resembled positivity had been the feeling of being satisfied.
He'd never experienced even slight affection towards something, not even himself. Which was probably why he'd had so few problems with ripping his soul into several pieces, now that he thought about it. The only emotions he had vast experiences with were anger, disappointment, agony, and possessiveness. The reason he was obsessed with Hogwarts wasn't that he had been attached, but because he was possessive of the castle. Because he had been the Heir of Slytherin, he had felt a certain claim over the castle.
He wasn't even sure what his objective for immortality was. It wasn't like Marvolo had a burning passion for the so-called 'pure-blood' agenda, not when it essentially discriminated against Marvolo himself.
But now, he felt passion. He felt passion toward his magic. He felt affection for his Master, and he felt attached to Frankenstein. He felt amused when he saw the elder Malfoys arguing about inconsequential things, like which color would suit which room for which occasion- something that took the married way too long to agree on, in his humble opinion.
And most of all, he felt grateful. The Dark Lord was forever grateful to his new master. At first, he had been confused, flabbergasted that he had been bested so easily. But slowly, Marvolo had come to terms with his new form of existence. And he had come to respect his new lord, realizing that he had essentially been saved from a continued existence of being a hollow shell of a human with way too much power.
Rai for his part was happy for his servant, and Narcissa was a pleasure to be around. The Noblesse had learned that she had been quite close with Sirius when they had been younger, and he could see why. Narcissa may act like she was the epitome of everything a pureblood Lady of her status, but with around those, she considered family her masked dropped to reveal a bold woman who wasn't above pulling a prank or two.
The Guardian had been surprised to learn that Narcissa had taken to him rather quickly, and knew that the woman was loyal to him- even though it was mainly because of Frankenstein. Draco, however, had proven to be an even bigger surprise.
The younger Malfoy had always treated him with respect, though he was a bit hard-headed at times when it came to matters like status. The boy was undoubtedly proud of his wealth and status as the Malfoy heir, and though he didn't quite like to show off like that awful Smith boy from Hufflepuff, he did always carry himself with an air of arrogance.
Not to mention his numerous spats with the youngest Weasley. Rai almost winced when he thought about the unfortunate boy.
Weasley was, in Rai's opinion, handed the wrong end of Fate's stick. He was not remarkable in any way, and to top it off, he suffered from an almost crippling complex of inferiority. His elder brothers and even his sister surpassed him greatly in terms of magical strength. not to mention that Rai was quite fond of the Weasley twins. The two terrors reminded Rai of Tao, and he was almost always amused by their antics as they usually left him out of their pranks. Not that they would be able to prank him anyway.
Not that they would be able to prank him anyway.
In any case, it was laughably easy for anyone to rile the youngest Weasley boy up and make him embarrass himself. When they had been first years, Draco had taken great delight in doing just that. Fortunately for Weasley, Draco quickly tired of him and his predictable reactions and had found a new target: Hermione Granger.
Granger was a smart muggle-born who was magically strong. If Rai was honest, she was probably the most powerful student after himself, Draco, and Su Li.
But she was far from perfect. She was bossy and competitive. Plus she had blind faith in teachers and books. When they had begun at Hogwarts, she had always treated Rai like a rival, staring at him through narrowed eyes and sniffed haughtily whenever Rai had answered a question by not quoting a book word for word. If the Noblesse was perfectly honest, it had been incredibly irritating after the first week.
Thus Granger had found herself the target of Draco's attentions. Though she was not as easy to rile up as the younger Weasley, she was still at odds with the rest of the first year for her better than thou attitude, so no one bothered to help her. Besides, she could her own.
The only time she had needed saving was when she had been caught in a case of wrong place and wrong time at Halloween of their first year. Rai had of course seen through Quirrell's pathetic attempt at getting the Stone and was about to leave for the Ravenclaw dormitories when Ron Weasley had run up to him. The poor boy informed him that Granger was missing, and was likely in the bathroom crying. Rai had rolled his eyes and followed the boy to the bathroom and knocked the troll out by levitating his club and dropping it on the creature's head.
While the two first years had been staring at him with awe, he had turned and left, not wanting to be caught in any trouble with the teachers.
Thankfully, after the incident with the troll, Granger had stopped staring at him with contempt, though she still had blind faith in teachers and books. The thing that changed that was the scandal with Lockhart.
It was definitely a welcome change as they had begun their third year and Granger had finally realized that the words of teachers and books were not gospel. She had begun to actually debate her conclusions and tried to see understand the different perspectives of people who disagreed with her. She also worked her answers differently, though at times she would still just directly quote a book.
The changes had not gone unnoticed, especially not by the young Malfoy heir, who had also had several revelations broken to him during the summer of 1993, as it was that summer that Frankenstein's memories had resurfaced in Lucius. And one of the first things that Rai's old servant had been quick to erase from his child's mind was the notion of blood status having any consequence.
Thus Draco had been much more open-minded to Granger's opinions and antagonized her much less. In fact, the two of them were often seen with Rai's group of friends that included the Ravenclaws in his year plus the Weasley twins on occasion, debating the various elements of magic.
Soon they became tentative friends, which had lead to Draco being abandoned by the more conservative Slytherins. But the Malfoy couldn't quite bring himself to care for the lack of Crabbe and Goyle's constant presence, as it was replaced by Hermione and Blaise Zabini, who was one of the more liberal Slytherins.
By their fourth year, Hermione had been someone Rai considered a friend, and someone Draco considered his best friend, and maybe more if their appearance at the Yule Ball was anything to go by. Rai shook himself out of his thoughts as they finally reached the Malfoy Manor's dueling chambers.
He had a servant to test.
AN: Umm...did I tell you all of how I am a university student? I had originally planned this to be a longer chapter, but I have encountered a writer's block...
Reviews are a common cure for the terrible illness called Writeris Blockus.
-iamAdisco