Precious few hours later, Arthur woke them up to leave their campsite. He packed the tents with his wand, and the group walked as fast as they could toward the place where the portkeys were. They passed Mr. Roberts at the door of his cottage, and the man wished them a rather dazed "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas!" Ginny answered brightly. "And Happy New Year!"
"Ginny!" Percy said indignantly as Fred, George, and Charlie all chuckled to themselves.
"He'll be all right," Mr. Weasley said. "Sometimes, when a person's memory is modified, it makes him a bit disoriented for a while...and that was a big thing they had to make him forget."
Ginny scowled back at the Muggle for an instant. "It was one night!" she fumed. "One bloody night, and he can't remember it's summer, not winter!"
Bill motioned Ginny over to himself, and she walked by his side, still upset. "He's a Muggle, Ginny. No magic sustaining him, or helping him recover. Of course wizards would recover more easily." She nodded, understanding that Bill was trying to make her feel better. He knew that she was thinking with fury of the St. Mungo's Healers' making her forget half her life.
They were able to catch a portkey back to Stoatshead Hill before light, and walked down the hill and through the slumbering town toward the Burrow. Just as they'd reached the end of the lane, they all heard someone shout, "Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness!"
Molly Weasley was literally running down the lane toward them, dressed in her bathrobe and slippers. She was clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet, which she dropped as she hugged her husband around the neck. "Arthur, I've been so worried...so worried—"
She pulled back and stared around at them all. "You're all right," she murmured. "You're alive! Oh, boys—!" she grabbed Fred and George in a hug, shocking them and banging their heads together.
"Ow! Mum, you're strangling us," they protested.
"I shouted at you before you left," said Mrs. Weasley, beginning to sob. "It's all I've been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who'd got you, and the last thing I'd ever said to you was that you didn't get enough OWLs? Oh, Fred, George—!"
"Come on now, Molly, we're all perfectly okay," Arthur reassured her before separating her from the twins and leading her toward the house.
Ginny watched Bill pick up the paper that Molly had dropped and frowned, wondering what it said. She didn't have to wait long, for the instant Arthur had sat down at the kitchen table and began to read it, he sighed. "Just as I thought. Everything's going to be in an uproar now because of this Rita Skeeter. She's going on about Ministry incompetence—"
"They are!" Ginny said before she could stop herself, and Percy snapped at her, then went on to complain about Rita Skeeter dissing his cauldron bottoms.
"Do us a favour, Perce, and shut up," Bill told him.
"I've got to go into work," Arthur said heavily. "This says that I refused to give onlookers information as to what happened. Now there are going to be rumours that bodies really were removed from the wood as the paper says. I've made things worse, and I've got to fix it. I'll just change into my robes and go."
"I'll go too," Percy said importantly, and darted upstairs to get presentable.
Ginny sat dully at the table with Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George as the Golden Trio hurried away up the stairs at Harry's word. So secretive, they supposed they were. Still, Ginny wondered what they talked about sometimes—and also who Harry thought should be writing him. Harry seemed a bit anxious about that.
Charlie turned to Ginny. "I think Mum put your school things up in your room, if you'd like to have a look."
She was about to get up from the table when Fred said, "Ginny, about this summer—well, I—I've been a—"
"Prick," Ginny supplied. "It's okay. Betrayal isn't to be taken lightly: it can lead to your death, in some cases."
"Language, Ginny," Bill scolded, but with a twinkle in his eyes. Charlie was chuckling, and asked, "What did you do?"
"I didn't," she answered. "Estella did. But never mind. I think I'll go look through my school things." She got up, then hugged her older brothers and turned to Fred and George. "Vermus Nez!"
Both twins shouted in horror, succumbing to the hex at the same time. Ginny had warded the room so that no one outside of it would hear. "Ginny!" came Percy's voice a second later, but Ginny didn't turn from the twins until she was satisfied, and took the hex off of them.
She glanced at Percy. "You were heading to work, Weatherby?"
The twins didn't even laugh, getting to their feet and ducking out of the room quickly. Percy looked at her. "You know better."
"I told you I didn't care," she answered, "and you didn't either until you started working for the Ministry. In fact, you should go help them. They're incompetent."
Furious, Percy stormed off, and Ginny headed upstairs, passing her mother and father on the way. Entering her room, Ginny felt the wards go back up and noticed the pile of books and packages next to her school trunk. Ginny opened her trunk to begin putting her things in it, and saw the picture of her Slytherin friends and cousins on the lid.
Taking the photo from the lid, Ginny looked at herself and the three sleeping Lestranges, her Patronus protecting them as they slept. "I've got to write them," she promised herself. "Although I will be seeing them soon. I wonder if the twins got to see the World Cup, or if they saw the Mark in the sky."
"Essstella," came a soft voice, and Ginny looked up to see her father standing just inside her window.
"Oh!" she gave a soft gasp, and darted into his arms as fast as she could, hugging him more tightly than she'd hugged most everyone else in the world.
"May I come take you away tonight?" he asked, his voice very quiet as his dark eyes bored into hers.
"Yeah," she answered, her voice muffled until she looked up at him and saw Levir and Lises, visible, coiled around his arms and shoulders.
Reginald Parkington hugged his daughter firmly. "I'll be taking you to the Chamber. I will come back at one o' clock for you." He released her, and she stepped back, aching for him to stay, but knowing he could not.
She watched him walk out of the window and called after him softly, "I love you."
Later that night, Ginny headed up to her room at almost midnight, her father and Percy having come home really late. She dressed to go out, making sure she was presentable, and made sure that her wand was still in her pocket. Her bitemates refused to stay behind, and she had all of them on her body, ready to visit their bitemates in the Chamber.
A few minutes before one o' clock in the morning, her father reappeared in her room, motioning to her to come quickly. She joined him, and he took her arm, leading her out the window. As they fell from the height, she almost screamed, and he clapped his hand over her mouth before disapparating from mid-air.
They appeared in the main room of the Chamber, Estella falling to the floor as her father landed nimbly before her. He offered her his hand, and she took it, hoisting herself to her feet. She gave him a small smile, her heart racing as adrenaline coursed through her.
"Estella!" Her mother came into the main room and gave her a look of fury and displeasure. "Your hair!"
The girl did not move from her father's side, taking the charm off her red hair so that it would become its natural black. Reginald slipped his arm around his daughter and pressed her close to his side. "Did you know that a third lives here in the Chamber with us?" he asked his daughter. "We haven't been able to catch him—I think he's avoiding us. Do you know who our other guest is?"
Estella didn't reply, unsure what to say. She'd completely forgotten that Tom lived in the Chamber, and might have run-ins with her parents. "Um," she began, then bit her lip. "I know he's here—"
The young man in question appeared behind Meretta and repelled her curses with efficiency. "If we may speak like civilized wizards," he said coolly, making her jump away from his own curses. "Perhaps you needn't get hurt—"
"Hurt!" shrieked Meretta with a laugh. "Ha! Who are you?"
"I am a cousin of your beloved Dark Lord," Tom answered, finally stepping out of the way of another curse. "He doesn't appreciate me."
"This is the original Tom Riddle," Estella told her father, who raised his eyebrows.
"It's all true?" he said in surprise. "It's all true, what Ramea says? At least, about there being two Tom Riddles?"
Meretta froze for an instant. "No!"
Tom regarded her, his wand still ready. "No?" he asked softly. "Would you like to see my bloodline, Meretta? Or would you prefer to believe without seeing, as your friends in Azkaban do? Did you enjoy your night at the Quidditch Cup? How's your Mark, young one?"
Estella bit her lip as her father gently loosened her grip on him and stepped forward. Reginald Parkington spoke. "If you are indeed the Dark Lord's cousin, then you are of the House of Gaunt. You would also be a very distant cousin of mine, and of Estella's, as much as Salazar Slytherin would deny us."
"He put us in charge of the Chamber, didn't he?" Ginny asked. "Why would he do that, if he'd disowned our line?"
"He didn't disown us, exactly," Reginald answered. "We just aren't the heirs: the Gaunt line is Salazar's heirs. A heritage test, then, Riddle?" He conjured a silver knife and handed it to Tom. Meretta whipped out a small bottle of a clear liquid, and stared at Tom, her eyes gleaming.
"Very well," Tom said, and without setting his wand down, he cut his left palm open, allowing Meretta to pour a couple of the drops from the bottle into his hand.
Reginald took the knife back and cut his own palm, allowing Meretta to put the drops onto his hand as well. The blood and the clear liquid collided, bubbling until the blood turned a very dark purple colour. The two men looked at each other, then stepped closer and pressed their palms together, magic instantly crackling around their hands. Reginald gave a gasp, then closed his eyes a moment, and Estella waited, almost afraid, wondering what would happen.
"Blood and magic mingled," Tom smirked at Reginald when the younger man stepped back, hissing sharply. "You know who I am. You felt the blood connection. I will leave you alone, but I'm not leaving. I'm here by your daughter's will."
"You're here because you have nowhere else to go," Estella corrected him angrily. "You're here because I didn't know everything in the Chamber was up to me!" She hurried to her father, very worried. "Are you all right? Tom, what did you—?"
"I didn't do anything," Tom answered. "It will be nothing compared to what is to come. I'll be elsewhere in the Chamber. Good evening—or should I say, good morning." Tom disappeared without another word.
"Father," Estella whispered, her hand on his arm as she stepped to his side again. "Is there some way I can help you?"
Reginald shook his head, then raised his sleeve slightly, exposing the raw burn on his forearm. Ginny bit her lip in horror, and Reginald grimaced, pushing his sleeve back over his Dark Mark. "He really is the Dark Lord's cousin, and the heir of the House of Gaunt. His magic—it's almost like the Dark Lord's—Meretta, he activated my Mark!"
Ginny didn't know what to say, staying by her father's side as he crossed the Chamber and entered a room, her mother following them. "He can't have!" she said sharply, grabbing her husband by the robe and yanking up his left sleeve to see for herself.
Estella saw the raw-looking skull and snake on her father's arm and drew closer. "How would someone else know if the Mark is activated?" she asked. "Just by looking at it, I mean."
Meretta rolled up her sleeve, placing her left arm side by side with her husband's. "His is red and almost inflamed-looking," Meretta said, "as if one of us had sent the Mark just now. My Mark—it's darkened!"
Reginald glanced toward his wife and Estella asked, "What's that mean?"
"The Dark Lord is closer to us," Meretta told her. "He's coming back, just as I always thought he would. We have waited so long..."
She sighed, and Reginald wrapped his arm around her waist loosely. "Right after the Accident, our Marks faded to look like a mere blemish," he told his daughter, who was still looking at her mother's Dark Mark. "Since the beginning of this summer, our Marks are becoming darker, more outlined. It is another sign of the Dark Lord's return."
Estella looked down at the floor of the Chamber. "Did you know before—before my dream?"
Meretta snorted. "Oh yes. Sometimes our Marks would pain us a little and remind us of our duty, and we would know. Those Death Eaters that don't believe in the Dark Lord's return are ignoring the evidence on their arms!"
"It was never your fault that the Death Eaters are reuniting," the man said quietly. "Your dream has nothing to do with our preparing to return to the Dark Lord."
"So you will go back?" Estella asked, then immediately realized her mistake.
"Of course!" shrieked Meretta angrily. "He is the most powerful wizard there ever was, and we will return to our duty when he returns for us! As those in Azkaban have been faithful, so will I be! You, girl, should know this! Your father and I have spent our whole lives running from those who oppose us!"
Estella bit her lip, not saying a word. Her father motioned to her to follow him, and the two walked over to the couch in the room, sitting down. "The answer is yes," Reginald told her. "We will always return to the Dark Lord, and any Death Eater that does not—his life is forfeit. There will be a price to pay for those that denied our Master."
"He isss not our Massster, isss he?" Levir asked, raising his head slightly.
Reginald touched the basilisk gently, rubbing his fingers along its scales. "If you obey me," he hissed softly, "you will obey Sissshausss-a-sissshausss."
Estella felt a chill run up and down her spine and bit her lip. "That Auror," she began in Parseltongue, then stopped, unable to find the right words.
"We're on the run," Reginald said softly. "Sometimes it's necessary to protect ourselves aggressively, Estella. We will soon be at war, too."
"Using my bitemates to kill," Estella said quietly.
"What are you saying?" Reginald asked her straightforwardly. "Are you commanding me concerning the basilisks?"
"No," she whispered. "I'm trying to understand."
Reginald looked away from her. "I'm not a good man, Estella. I am bound to the Dark Lord and will remain so my entire life, doing whatever I must to remain free and alive. That would include killing or injuring anyone who tries to stop me."
She bit her lip again, and said, "Would you ever hurt me if I got in your way?"
He drew a sharp breath. "Don't," he whispered. "Estella, don't ever put me in that position. You're my daughter, but—the Dark Lord wouldn't understand—if I held back because of you. Please—please—I'd never want to hurt you."
Ginny's heart sank. "Daddy," she sniffled.
He sighed and turned to her, drawing her into his arms. "I'm sorry," he whispered as she snuggled close to him, wanting to feel comforted. "I've made my life a terrible mess, sweetling. I know you're trying to understand and accept the reality of your parents' life. Please remember that I love you."
"Yes, Father," she sniffled, and he released her after a moment.
"You should go back to the Burrow to sleep now," he told her. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, I guess," Estella answered, disappointed. "Can't I stay here and go back in the morning? Before they get up?"
Her father chuckled and got to his feet. "When you're here at school, you can stay down here. Don't risk being found out if you can help it, child." He slipped his arm around her shoulders and led her from the room.
She looked around, then asked him, "Where did Mum go? I didn't even see her leave!"
"Probably to rest," Reginald shrugged. "We were speaking Parseltongue, and that does annoy her, especially because she's the only one here that doesn't speak."
"Oh." Estella glanced around as her father put his arm around her.
"Be still," he said, then disapparated. They appeared outside the Burrow, and Reginald motioned her to move with him, the two moving quickly toward the house. Suddenly, they were airborne, and before Ginny could say anything, they had landed in her bedroom.
The man touched her hair gently, his magic crackling softly through his hand, and her hair changed from natural black to a dark red. "Remember, Estella," he said. "I love you." He kissed her forehead and hugged her, then headed for the window, leaving quickly.
"I love you too," she whispered, arriving at the window too late to see him disapparate. "I love you too, Father."
Estella turned from the window and caught sight of herself in the shadowed mirror. He didn't give me the right shade of red hair, she thought to herself, standing there for a second in the moonlight. I'll keep it, she decided. I can just tell anyone that asks that I woke up with it. She smirked at herself in the mirror, then stepped closer, posing as she'd seen her real mother stand.
Teneski poked her head out of her mistress's sleeve, hissing almost in amusement, "Missstress's sssire saysss sssleep, Missstress. It isss late."
"Yesss, Father," she chuckled softly, then allowed her bitemates to slither closer to her body as she changed silently into her nightgown. She wrapped her warmest bathrobe around herself before crawling into bed, feeling extra cold. Feeling something behind her pillow, she pulled it out and realized it was her teddy bear. Squeezing it to herself tightly, she covered it with her regular blanket so that Hermione wouldn't see it in the morning.
Ginny rolled her eyes inwardly, thinking of Hermione's sleeping through a Death Eater twice flying in through the window. "The hisssusss did not hear usss come in either time," she said to the bitemates with a yawn.
"Missstress," said Zisi importantly, "Massster saysss sssleep!"
"I will," Ginny sighed as her basilisks settled all around her. "Goodnight, bitematesss."
They hissed softly, and she fell asleep, Icythan coiled against her chest.