Chapter Twenty-Eight – Threats
Without even thinking of the consequences, Ravenna leapt at one of the larger Wiseman gang members, wand drawn. "Stupefy!" she roared.
The spell hit, sending him toppling to the floor…but before she could really move, three more men were trying to grab her and drag her out of the room. Terrified, she unsheathed the sword Moltrov had taught her to fight with from its place on her hip with her free hand, swinging it in broad strokes in order to make them back away. She wasn't perfect with either a blade or a bow, but she knew how to fight and hit a moving target.
Meanwhile, jimmy Devotti, who was holding off two more attackers with his wife and father at his side, managed to cast a glance at her after firing off the Cruciatis Curse. "Where'd ya get the sword, kid?" he yelled. "Ya lift it?"
"Moltrov!" Ravenna yelled back, her anger getting hotter and hotter with every minute. She wanted to let loose with her Dark power…wanted the whole Wiseman gang think twice about bothering her…but something was stopping her. Holding her back, like a chain wrapped around her throat. She wanted to figure out why, but there was no time.
Finally, there was enough distance between her and the Wiseman gang to try a spell she had only recently figured out. With an angry swish, she nailed one of the gangbangers in the chest, turning him to stone. The other two – they must have been Muggles, they had no wands on them – appeared terrified.
That was what she wanted. "Reducto!" she yelled. Unfortunately, one of the gangbangers leapt in front of her, drawing his gun…just in time to be shrunk to the size of a thimble as the bullet left his gun, the bullet so weak it only dented the toe of Ravenna's right shoe. She was a little upset that she missed the mark...especially when Ferdinand, a sixteen-year-old nephew of Jimmy's and a fellow enforcer in the den, used a spell that caused the petrified gangbanger to be shattered into a million pieces.
"GET BACK TO HOGWARTS, 'VENNA!" he roared as he was roped into battle with another pair of Wiseman gang members. She saw his face – a tanned one, with cold gray eyes and greasy black hair, staring at her.
"I'm not leaving you all here to die!" she hollered back, narrowly missing a full Body-Bind…just in time to get hit with Stupefy from another Wiseman. Her wand fell from her hand, and she fell to the ground, helpless to save herself.
Lucky for her, Ferdinand Paravotti, son of Jimmy's sister, went nuts. The former Durmstrang student, who was expelled from the school for using the Cruciatis Curse on a teacher for flunking him, went into a rage, flinging Killing Curses at every Wiseman in sight – and soon, the Wiseman's that still happened to be standing were running for the windows like trapped rats.
Finally, Ravenna managed to stand up just as one of the last ones made his escape – and she wanted sweet revenge. "Incendio!" she screamed, aiming her wand at the escapee's pants…and they ignited, causing him to fall to the floor, his lower half ablaze.
"Aguamenti!" Jimmy roared, determined not to let the idiot wreck the fine Persian carpet on the floor. The man hit the floor, and the carpet was spared…but not before the muscle, bone, and sinew in his legs was left completely exposed. The man roared out in agony…but Ravenna had no mercy for him, much less the other Devotti's.
The battle was over – and the Devotti's, for now, reigned supreme. Twelve Wiseman's had fallen, and three Devotti's were left with serious injuries. In fact, many had fled to other rooms in the house when Ferdinand had gone on his personal rampage, too terrified to chance being the victim of one of his curses.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Devotti had once again taken on the task of leader. "Venna," he barked out. "Take Ferdinand and Giuseppe with you and get these bodies down to the morgue. You remember the rules, right?"
"Yes," Ravenna replied. "No evidence."
"Good." Jimmy replied. "Dad, I need you to get to the Ministry… make bloody sure our insiders get their paychecks…this can't make the papers, or the casino is toast."
The oldest Devotti nodded and Apparated out of the room. Almost without needing to be told, Isabella (Black) Devotti, Jimmy's wife, and Fernadina (Rizoulli) Paravotti, Ferdinand's muther began cleaning up the destroyed room. As Ravenna left for the morgue, saddened that she wouldn't be able to enjoy Mona Devotti's delicious tiramisu, she wondered why Ferdinand had been so enraged, using the Killing Curse with such anger. She had only seen the Killing Curse a couple of times, and had heard rumours among members of the gang that Ferdinand's heavy use of the Curse had rent his soul into a million pieces.
"If that could be so," Ravenna thought to herself as the first body was brought in, "why does he act the way he does toward me? He…he's never threatened me, not one time, and he'll whack anyone almost as soon as he looks at them. Not even the other Devotti's are immune to his threats…so why me?"
Ravenna, however, didn't give a voice to her thoughts…Giuseppe, Jimmy's youngest son, did it for her.
"Hey, Ferd, you got a crush on Miss 'Venna or somethin'?" Giuseppe asked in his heavy Italian accent. Of all the Devotti's, the youngest son of Jimmy and Isabella had the most passionate love of his fatherland, despite the fact he had only lived in it only a few years…and the most passionate hatred for Mussolini and his Brown Shirts. He had made it clear on more than one occasion, even though he was only a sixteen-year-old Hogwarts dropout, that he would not hesitate to lie about his age and join the Muggle armies the minute Britain declared war on Italy, which he was sure would come any day now.
Ferdinand blushed angry red – a confirmation to his suspicions. "V-Venna," he suddenly stammered. "Y-Ya know I care about 'ya, right?"
"Yes," Ravenna replied calmly as a black burst of fire shot from her hands. "Very few men would use that many Killing Curses for one woman, even a second-year Hogwarts student such as I." The body on the table, her fourth, disintegrated to ashes, adding to the almost unbearable smell of charred flesh in the room.
Ferdinand gave her a nervous smile, but then he went on. "See, if ya know that 'ta be true, then I think I can tell 'ya that I don't think that Riddle kid loves you as much as he should – and keep that between you and me if ya can. That kid – an' I can tell ya this even though I never met 'im face-ta-face – he's not good. I know I ain' much better, havin' been kicked out of Drumstrang like Gellert Grindelwald, but that kid…somethin' is wrong about that kid, real wrong. I don't know what, but…be careful.
Ravenna's face went pale…but instead of the anger she had felt towards Wiglaf and the house-elf…she felt a touch of fear. Were they right? Was Tom really as nasty as everyone claimed he was? Ferdinand was the third person to warn her about Tom, and to make matters worse, he didn't even know Tom Riddle!
Suddenly, however, the fear was replaced with…excitement. Ferdinand was jealous of Tom, just as Wiglaf had been. Ferdinand wanted to love her…but then, she knew her heart could never be shared. She still loved Tom Riddle, still wanted him, she knew that…and Ferdinand could never be what Tom was, what he would become.
Finally, the last of the bodies had been burned, and Jimmy Devotti escorted her back to the safety of her Hogwarts dormitory just before lights out was called. "Good work today, kid," Jimmy said. "However, ya gotta be careful. The Wiseman's…we found something out about them today. Something bad."
"What is it?" Ravenna asked.
"Grindelwald's funding them as a puppet organization," Devotti replied. "He's running a revolution in the Wizarding World, ya know, and it's not like he has all the time in the world to hunt down his precious Dark Despair. He knows you've joined us as an associate, Ravenna…and he's not going to just let that slide. If he has to start a Mafia war in the Wizarding World to get his hands on you…or worse…that's what he'll do."
Ravenna wanted to scream, but kept her mouth shut. "So, he's going to hound me all summer?"
Devotti sighed. "That's what it looks like – and that's why I'm sending Ferdinand to Knockingturn this summer. We're gonna have him infiltrate Hogwarts as a seventh-year next year, give him a fake name and paperwork, the whole shebang. Our Ministry men have green-lighted the whole thing…no one will know any better. If the Ministry won't protect you…the most violent man in the Devotti Mafia will."
Then, he turned on his heel and disappeared back down the hall. Ravenna uttered her dormitory password and disappeared, knowing this would be a good summer to become an Animagus.
It might be the only way she would be able to hide from the world.
…
Soon, Ravenna's second year of Hogwarts was over…and then came the awful parting trip for Ravenna and Tom on the Hogwarts Express. She knew Tom had fought like one of the legendary basilisks to remain at Hogwarts, still struggling to uncover the missing pieces of his father's heritage. Tom had sworn up and down to Ravenna that his father had been a wizard, but there was no sign of "Tom Riddle Senior" anywhere at Hogwarts.
"What about your grandfather, Marvolo?" Ravenna wondered as they sat in their carriage. "What about your muther? Couldn't they have been the one with the magical blood?"
"No way – it had to be my father, Ravenna!" Tom exclaimed to her, almost a little too loudly. "You see, my muther died – there's no way she could have been a witch! If she had been a witch, she would not have died after childbirth – or at all."
Ravenna wanted to protest and tell him that millions of witches and wizards had died, but knew that Tom hated death – it was the one thing he hated, for some reason, more than any other. Soon, Avery, one of Tom's friends, opened the door.
"May I come in?" he wondered. "Everywhere else is-"
Before Avery could finish his sentence, a burst of bright light flashed across Ravenna's vision, knocking her to the floor. Everything around her suddenly blacked out…
"Suddenly…she was in a black-and-white image of London, floating like a ghost above its many buildings. The sky was bright and beautiful…and then, she heard the droning of a plane off in the distance.
And then, it came…a German plane, one that she had never seen before. Then came two more…then more, and more. Soon, the whole sky was full of planes…and they began to drop bombs upon the beautiful city. The sky filled with the smoke of bombs, and the air was rent with screams…
London – and all of England – would soon be at war."
"Ravenna?" Tom wondered, his hand reaching down to pull her up from the floor. "What happened?"
Ravenna's eyes filed with tears, knowing exactly what she had seen. "Tom," she said brokenly. "Swear to me…that you will do all you can…to stay away from London after this summer."
"Why?" Tom wondered.
"You might die if you don't."
