Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, this wonderful world belong to her; I'm just a fan.


Eleven, continued


Alphard grabbed Abraxas from behind, his palm pressing into the squirming boys mouth as he pulled him into a darkened alcove. "Stop," he implored, "it's me."

The blond stiffened, shoving away from his friend just as he was being let go. "What is wrong with you?" He questioned, pressing his wand into the base of the youngest Black's neck.

He put his hands up in surrender, leaning the wall behind him as he studied the older wizard. Unsurprisingly, he looked tired and angry, and as though he expected everything to go wrong at any minute. Slipping his hands into his pockets, Alphard shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing. But, you're about to make a mistake."

Abraxas scowled, seeming to grow even angrier before saying, "You know nothing about what I'm about to do, Black."

"You're going to out Mimi," he told him, noting the slight surprise that flashed in his friend's eyes, "and it's a mistake. I swear it. You don't want to do this, Abe."

"You knew?"

"I have no idea what you may know, or may think you know. But you can't...Riddle isn't in his right mind. You know that as well as any of us do. He loves her. Outing her isn't going to help this situation."

Malfoy had recoiled when Alphard used the present tense, as though he knew something that no one else should have known, and he watched the younger wizard critically before saying, "If you knew what I knew, you'd tell him."

"No, I wouldn't."

"You'd dishonor your house," Abraxas countered, watching Black tense, his eyes seeming to unfocus as he considered his words. "Yeah," he swallowed, numbness spreading through him. "Tell me that you wouldn't tell Riddle. Tell me that he doesn't deserve to know."

Alphard hesitated, staring at his friend as uncertainty crowded his body. "He doesn't."

Abraxas took a step back in the small space, pressing himself the wall. "Where is your loyalty? You're a traitor. Merlin, I'll tell him, I swear it."

Black grabbed Malfoy's arm, fingers tight around his wrist as he stopped him from leaving. "My loyalty is to Mimi -as is Cygnus' and Orion's. It was by her request that I joined the Knights, and I will just as easily leave, if she were to will it. You'd do well to remember that, Malfoy, when you question where my loyalty lies," he spat. Letting go, he tugged the sleeve on his robes over his elbow and unbuttoned his shirt cuff, revealing his Knights mark.

It was vibrant gold against his skin, similar to the jewelry Mimi favored, and incredibly different from the inky black swords that the others wore. "Riddle did mine the same way he did yours, and any one else's, and this is the color that his magic chose to leave behind. You can take a look at theirs too, and anyone else you believe has sworn themselves to her. The gold and black intertwine throughout as if they're fighting for dominance.

"I hadn't thought much about it until the other night, when Lestrange mentioned that they could feel and feed off of one another after some bond they chose. My Lady never once used her magic on me, yet my mark reflects her signature. That's power, Abraxas. I think it's the reason Riddle has seemed fucking docile these last few months. He can't lose that. If he loses that connection with her, or someone sullies it with some shit he really doesn't need to know, we're fucked."

Alphard straightened his robes. "Tell him if you wish, but remember that anything that happens after is your own damned fault. He will never get over her disappearance, or death, or whatever it is we're calling it. You know that. And whatever you plan on telling him about her," he shook his head, unable to even consider what may happen.

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Each and every one of us is hurting from this, Abe. We're all dealing with this as best we can. But, we all aren't as mentally and emotionally strong as we should be. Your information can damage us-"

"If your loyalty isn't with my Lord-"

"Oh, don't start, Malfoy. What did I just show you? You tell Riddle, he loses his shit, and we're all fucked. But, go ahead, Abraxas. By all means, literally ruin all of our lives." He shook his head in disbelief of everything, "Orion swore she'd come back if we needed her, and I believe him."

"You would trust your fucking traitor of a cousin," Abraxas snapped. "And you don't know a thing about her, Black. You'd do well to remember that."

He laughed. "I know she's a Montague, Malfoy."

"How the hell do you know that she's a Montague?" Abraxas asked harshly, fear eating at his chest. He worried, suddenly, that it would show too clearly in his eyes, and blinked a few times to clear the influx of emotion before deciding that he didn't care. He hated the girl, but he didn't want everyone smearing her name. Only he could do that.

"Orion told us."

"Orion told us," he repeatedly slowly, blinking nothingness into his eyes. He felt the void consuming him again, mind blanking as his irrational need to both protect and tear Mimi to pieces filled his body. "He fucking told who?"

"Oh," Alphard said, tilting his head. A slow smile crept onto his face, "I see."

Abraxas pressed his wand into the boy's chest as he began to laugh.

"Merlin, you don't know. They didn't fucking tell you. Don't worry, okay? They can't say anything, and they won't. She's a Pureblood, and they fucking love her. Not to mention she's our Lord's Lady. We're not crazy, Malfoy. Not like you."

"She's not a Montague," he told him quietly, peering blankly at his friend, wand still pressed into his chest. "And she's not a Malfoy. She's a Mudblood from some other time."

Alphard stopped laughing and recoiled, slamming harshly into the wall and looking at his friend with wide eyes.

"Yeah," Abraxas breathed, leaning against the wall before sliding down it. He pressed his thighs toward his chest in effort to keep away from Alphard in the tight space, wrist resting atop his knee and wand dangling carelessly from his fingers. "I know."

Black slid down as well, knees pressing into the wall Malfoy was leaning on as he sagged lowly into the floor. "Merlin, she's a mu...a mud-fuck," he rubbed at his forehead. "She's so powerful," he murmured, looking blankly into space. "That's why- Merlin, it's all so obvious, isn't it?"

"I don't know. No. Not to me."

"Before this year, Riddle wouldn't have even fathomed allowing a Half-blood in, but now, now we have them and Muggleborns on our side. All of those little boys we have now, they wouldn't have even given Riddle the time of day if it weren't for Mimi."

"Yeah, because filth attracts filth, Alphard. You know that."

He looked at the blond with wide eyes. "How can you say that? That's your sister?"

"She's not my sister! She fucking lied to me, Alfie. She let me believe so many untrue things, and that hurts. I loved her, and I trusted her, and she betrayed me. I would have done anything for her, and she couldn't even tell me the truth."

"Would it have changed anything? If she'd told you? Would you still love her, or would you hate her?"

Abraxas swallowed, looking at his wand as he twirled it between his fingers. After a long pause, he looked at his friend with watery eyes. Alphard sighed.

"I don't know. I still love her, but I'm glad she's gone, because I fucking hate her, too. I can't...the fact that she lied to me just highlights how filthy she is."

"I don't know how you can say that. Even now, knowing that she isn't Pureblood, I can't think any less of her. She's incredible, and we need that. We needed her. Obviously, Riddle knew that."

"He doesn't know. That's what I'm going to tell him. I told him she was a Montague before school started, to stop him from doing something stupid to the insolent little girl."

"How did you find out she wasn't who you thought she was?"

He sucked his teeth, leaning his head back. "My parents. My own fucking parents."

"How did they know?"

"They always fucking knew she'd show up. They were friends with the Montagues, because Massimo mentored my father, and I don't know, they planned this or something. They said she was here because he is the cause of some great war of her time, and she was here to figure something out. I don't know. I was so angry, Alfie. But, my mother swears Tom is lying to us all, and that his plans are bigger and far more dangerous to us than he leads us to believe. I don't think so, though. Especially not when I tell him this."

"You're going to tell him? Still?"

"Wouldn't you?"

Alphard laughed, but it was a short and bitter sound that mocked Abraxas more than anything else. "Absolutely not. I stand by my earlier belief even more now. If you tell him she is a Muggle-"

"Muggleborn," Malfoy stressed, but he didn't really know why.

Neither did Alphard, who continued as though he hadn't been interupted. "He'll lose it. He won't see the power in that. He'll just claim that they're all liars and manipulators-"

"Aren't they?"

"Shut up, Abraxas. You make no sense. You're pissing me off so badly. Think about this. She is a Muggleborn sent here from some other time, which means she knows things she shouldn't know, that we could never know about the future. She was sent here to figure something out? Okay, obviously that's how to fix the situation in her time, and she chose to fucking open Tom's eyes -open all of our lives to so many truths and paths that we weren't even paying attention to. Before she arrive, Riddle barely considered Half-bloods as valuable wizards, so he really didn't think Muggleborns were worth anything. But she got him to change that view, and so many others. She chose to love him. You can't tell me she didn't. You can't tell me that Riddle didn't grow when he felt that."

"You don't think that's dangerous? That it's going to destroy us?"

"You're such a fucking racist, Abe. What's wrong with you? Why is she suddenly dangerous because she is Muggleborn? Are you kidding? She loved him. I heard her admit it. What they had was so real and so true that I am envious. It wasn't, and would never be, bound by the same rules as your marriage, or mine. She influenced him so much, and for the better. Her presence here helped him, and us, and I don't know how to explain that to you if you can't see it for yourself. I'm sorry about it, but can't you just trust me on this?

"Look, I don't know the whole story, alright? I just know that you can't fake what they had, and that telling him that right now will destroy him. Maybe...maybe in a few years, when he's accepted that she's gone and realized everything he's lost. But, not now. She wouldn't betray him, I don't think she could even she needed to, and she promised she'd come back if things didn't work out. I have so much faith in that.

"I understand that you feel betrayed and hurt and that you hate her for lying to you, but do you really hate her? Can you really say that beyond her not telling you she was Muggleborn, and protecting that part of herself, that she wasn't genuine with you?

"The love she had for you and your family was unreal, you know. She constantly sang you all praises, and had so much pride in your name and your future. Why throw that away?"

Silence fell between them for a long time, until he finally responded, "She threw it away."

Alphard sighed, realizing that he hadn't really gotten through to his friend at all. He'd still tell Tom the moment he left this space, and Alphard couldn't help but feel as though it would ruin everything beyond the pieces their future was already in because of her departure. Taking a deep breath, he reached forward and rested his hand on top of the blond's wand clenched fist. It was such an uncomfortable thing to do to a wizard that wasn't his brother, and he frowned at their point of contact for a few seconds longer before finally saying, "I'll make a deal with you."

Abraxas watched him uncomfortably, but with semi-curious eyes. Swallowing the watery lump in his throat, he said, "Give it six years. In six years time, you will tell me the entire truth as you know it, and I will tell Riddle that I knew the entire time, and chose to withhold the information-"

"You're crazy, Alphard. You're fucking crazy," Abraxas tried to pull his hand away, but couldn't.

"Because I believed that informing everyone of her blood status would end everyone's motivation to do and be better in our Lady's memory, and hinder all of our success. On my honor, I will take the fault and fall for this, should it come to that, and in return you will never tell Riddle what you know. You will honor the sacrifice our Lady made and allow her work some time to grow."

Alphard let go of Abraxas' hand, invoking a sworn oath. "That is how much faith I have in her."

"You're going to get yourself killed."

"Yeah, well if her being here is anything to go by, I trust in your parents belief that it wasn't going to work out for us anyway."

After a few minutes, Malfoy sighed. "I don't see how you can have so little faith in our Lord."

"I don't know how you could be so stupid," Black told him, but it lacked bite. Honestly, he could believe himself, but Mimi had never given him a reason to doubt her, and he genuinely felt like supporting and trusting her was what he was meant to do. Silently, he swore to himself and to her -wherever or whenever she was- that he would see her work through. He had to.

Alphard lifted his eyes to meet his friend's, "I'll tell you a secret if you swear you won't repeat it."

"I swear."

"The first time I met Mimi, Burke was harassing her, and I could see this fire in her eyes and around her as she sweetly tried to get him away from her. All she wanted to do was to study, and there was this weird but incredible power around her as she patiently waited for him to get over himself. Anyhow, I was there for her then, and I'm here for her now, and I'm always going to be. I joined Riddle because of Mimi, because I saw and felt so much truth when she was around, Abraxas. I don't know how to explain it, and I don't know how you can't feel it, but even though she's gone I still know that this is going to be okay, because their bond is still strong wherever she may be, and he can feel and understand that.

"I joined Riddle because of Mimi, because I had faith in her and her power, and I trusted that she wouldn't let him kill any of us for something stupid."

"She can't keep you safe now, though."

Alphard sighed shortly, and decided not to explain any further because he didn't really understand himself. He got up, and offered a hand to his friend. As they left the alcove, they walked away from the room Riddle was staying in, and toward the Malfoy's welcoming wing.

At length, he replied, "I'll be safe until I sully his memory of her, and then I'll be free."

And there was nothing that Abraxas could say to that.


A/N - Thank you so much for all of the reviews! They really mean the world to me. Thanks for the follows and favorites as well. I truly appreciate all of it.