The Knights of the Founders
Written By: J.C. Vascardi

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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the books.

Established Pairings: Harry Potter/OMC: Noah Diggory, Charlie Weasley/OMC: Alexi Zeklos

Established Past Pairings: Harry Potter/Cedric Diggory

Eventual Pairings: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle/Cedric Diggory/OMC: Noah Diggory/OMC: Jean-Luc Lavoisier, plus others I choose not to reveal at this time.

Entire Series Warnings: Alternate Universe, Slash, Original Characters, Language, Violence, Pseudo-Incest, Incest, Torture, Harem, M/M Sex, Threesome, Moresome, and Mpreg

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Previously in "Knights of the Founders"

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Dumbledore and the Heads of House react to the news that Voldemort and Tom Riddle are not the same person. And that Voldemort is actually a demon from the Nine Hells. Snape thinks it's ludicrous. And Dumbledore has a hard time believing that Tom and Voldemort are not the same person.

Rhylian shows up in the Founder's Tower with a copy that Daenerys made of the Atlantean copy of the Tome of the Founders and in looking at the section detailing the Gaunt and Riddle families, not only is the rampant inbreeding of the Gaunts revealed, but so too is an oddity in regards to Tom's age. Despite it being 1996 and Tom being born in 1926, the Tome still lists his age as only 16. This leads to speculation that Tom might be being held prisoner by Voldemort using a Dark Arts prison variant of the Time Suspension Charm.

With a potion invented by Salazar Slytherin for his own personal use the heirs and their professors witness a truly horrific torture session which proves that not only are Voldemort and Tom Riddle not the same person, but that Voldemort is holding Tom with the prison variant and taking sick pleasure from torturing him.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

Sight Draft Aftermath

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Back in the Slytherin Suite, there were horrified expressions on several people's faces as the images and sounds coming from the cauldron faded. Tears were running down the cheeks of several of the room's occupants—both male and female—and more than one of them felt sick to their stomachs.

Dumbledore hung his head as he swayed on his feet a moment, before staggering over to a nearby chair and collapsing. He'd been so sure that Tom was Voldemort and… he was so wrong. He'd been wrong about other things over the course of his life, but never on this scale. This was just… he couldn't even find the words to describe not only how sickened he was by Voldemort's treatment of Tom… but the feelings of guilt that bubbled up as he began wondering if he'd missed some sign that could have spared the poor boy all the years of torture he'd obviously suffered.

McGonagall looked more than little green and she clutched her stomach. After a moment, a voice said, "Minerva, here."

Turning to Snape, she saw that he was holding out a vial to her. One raised eyebrow had Snape adding, "It's an Anti-Nausea Potion… Elizabeth suggested that I brew a batch alongside the Sight Draft, just in case."

Accepting it gratefully, McGonagall downed it, as Snape began handing out the potion to everybody else who wanted one. Going into this he hadn't thought that the potion would be necessary because he'd seen Voldemort torture people before but… what he'd just witnessed in that cauldron was worse than anything he'd ever seen the Dark Lord do in the past. It had left him very grateful that he brewed the potion as he found himself drinking a vial of it before he'd even given any to anyone else.

Harry clung desperately to Noah, his face buried in the older boy's chest, as Noah rubbed circles on Harry's back. Hannah was crying on Ernie's shoulder, while Ryan hugged Luna, and Xander did his best to comfort Sprout, while Flitwick did the same for Hermione. Even the founders and their spouses were not immune to reaction, because while they couldn't see what was happening in the cauldron, they still heard it and many of them were sure that if it was possible for a portrait to cry, that they'd be doing just that.

Salazar, meanwhile, had collapsed to his knees, his face in the palms of his hands as he muttered over and over again, "What have I done? What have I done?" alternating with "My fault. This is all my fault."

After the third repetition of both those phrases, Salazar felt a strong hand on his shoulder and looked up as Godric knelt down next to him. "It's not entirely your fault, Sal. We're both to blame," before pulling his first love and former husband into a hug. The two men embraced, shaking and crying tearlessly as Elizabeth and Cameron looked on, happy that the long feud between their husbands might finally be on its way towards mending.

Nothing was said for a few minutes, as the occupants of the room tried to collect themselves and recover. Finally, after a moment, Harry broke the silence by asking, "So what do we do now?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm not certain there's anything we can do."

"What?" Snape asked icily. "One of my Slytherins…"

"Technically, he's one of Horace's Slytherins," Flitwick interjected.

"That's entirely beside the point!" Snape thundered. "The Slytherins never get the care and concern they deserve. Something happens to a student from one of the other three houses and everyone is moving heaven and earth to help them, but gods forbid a Slytherin is in trouble and three of the four houses write them off as bigoted junior Death Eaters not worth their time!"

"Now, Severus that is not what I meant," Dumbledore said, as he stood up. "Of course I want to help that poor boy. Nobody and I do mean nobody deserves what we just witnessed. However, until we know more I don't see that there's anything we can do about it."

"What more do you need to know?" Snape asked, obviously infuriated.

"A location for one," Dumbledore said, as he gazed sharply at Snape over the tops of his half-moon spectacles. "We can't exactly run off and rescue him until we actually know where he is. We also need to know what safeguards are in place. Are there traps, magical or non-magical? How many guards? All of that is vital info that will determine the success or failure of any rescue that we attempt and unfortunately we don't have any of it at the moment. Obviously we need to get it as soon as possible and get him out of there, but we can't rush in without a plan."

"I'll hold you to that, Headmaster," Snape said, in a cold tone, as he crossed his arms and glared at Dumbledore.

"Albus is correct," Merlin said. "Rushing in without a plan will very likely get people killed. So we all need to just calm down and start thinking about this rationally. I understand that it's hard, but clear heads are what's needed here. As Albus said, we need to figure out where he is, what kind of protections are in place, and what kind of resistance can be expected. Ideally, I'd also like to find a way to rescue the boy and find some way of preventing Voldemort from finding out about it, at least right away."

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, You-Know-Who clearly enjoys torturing him. So, he'll undoubtedly be upset if he finds him missing. I doubt there's a way that we can keep him from ever finding out that Tom is gone, but even a delay of a few days would be better than nothing. We also need to consider how we're going to go about keeping Tom safe once we've got him. When You-Know-Who does realize he's gone, I don't doubt that he'll begin doing everything he can to get him back and probably have all the Death Eaters searching for him."

"We also have to take care however that we don't just make Tom exchange one prison for another," Sprout interjected. "He's spent the last fifty-three years in prison and deserves to live his life. But in protecting him from You-Know-Who, we have to make sure that we're not turning him into a prisoner ourselves. Obviously we'd never hurt him the way that he's being hurt by You-Know-Who, but we can't just save him and then keep him locked away for his own protection. That's no kind of life and after everything he's suffered, he deserves better than that."

Silence fell over the room, before Rhylian cleared his throat and said, "Asheera says that the Circle may be able to help in figuring out where Tom is."

"Who's Asheera?" Rowena asked.

Rhylian smiled and said, "My wife," before he gestured towards his ears and said, "You've all probably noticed my earrings."

There were several nods at this, as they were something that were rather hard to miss. Rhylian had a silver and emerald stud rimmed in rose gold in the lobe of each of his ears. What made them truly noticeable, however, was the fact that a pair of small silver chains came down from the studs a couple of inches before looping upwards to a silver and rose gold ear cuff midway up his ear, just below the point.

"I know they look like they're silver and rose gold," Rhylian commented, "but they're not. The silver is actually mythril and the rose gold is orichalcum, both metals that are exclusively produced in Atlantean mines. Anyway, the earrings are optional parts of the traditional Atlantean wedding jewelry and serve as a mental receiver. Not all married couples in Atlantis choose to wear them, but for those of us who do we can feel the emotions of our partner and speak to them telepathically."

"That's a very interesting bit of magic," Dumbledore said, as he couldn't help but wonder if he'd be wearing something similar at some point in the future. He was still trying to wrap his mind around what had happened during the trip to Atlantis. The fact that he actually had to marry Cormac McLaggen… well, it hadn't fully sunk in yet. Nor had the added shock that he'd be returning to his twenty-one-year-old self within a matter of months.

'I'm going to have to talk with Cormac soon,' Dumbledore thought. 'And Aberforth so that we can come up with a plan in regards to the Dumbledore lordship. His son will be disappointed that he's not inheriting.'

Dumbledore loved his nephew but the boy—if you can call a man in his eighties a boy—had made no secret over the years of where he planned to take the family after he inherited the lordship since it was always assumed that he would since Dumbledore never had children of his own, unlike Aberforth, who was now a great-great-grandfather.

"So how can the Circle help find Tom?" McGonagall asked.

"We can cast a spell to help narrow down his location," Asheera said, as she popped into the room. "And as long as it's done in Atlantis, it should be undetectable by Voldemort. Hopefully even if we don't get a precise location it'll be narrowed down enough that we can figure out where he's likely to be."

"The only potential issue is that we're going to need something of Tom's in order to cast the spell," Rhylian added. "The spell we'd be using needs something that was in direct contact with Tom as a focus."

"I think I have something in my office that will work," Dumbledore said. "An old diary that Tom kept during his school days. It has a large hole in the center from being stabbed with a basilisk fang, but it did belong to him nonetheless."

"And if that doesn't work, my grandmother might have something of his," Ryan said. "They did date in school, before she started going out with Grandfather William, so she may have kept some sort of memento of their time together."

"There's also several awards that he won in the Trophy Room, I believe," Flitwick added.

"Well, then let's see about finding ourselves an imprisoned Slytherin shall we?" Rhylian asked.

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Dumbledore retrieved the diary from his office, while Sprout and McGonagall went up to the Trophy Room and grabbed a few of Tom's various awards. Flitwick, meanwhile, accompanied Ryan to his office from which Ryan Floo-Called Lucinda to ask if she had any mementos that belonged to Tom. As it turned out, she did, because when she dumped him all those years ago he apparently got so angry that he tore his prefect badge off his robe and threw it at Lucinda. She'd never understood why he'd done it or why she'd kept it all these years, but told Ryan she'd bring it over to Hogwarts.

Obviously she was very curious about why Ryan had even asked, but through her years of Auror training she could see something in her grandson's eyes and body language that told her not to ask about it over an unsecured Floo-Call. Needless to say that Lucinda was shocked when in the privacy of the Ravenclaw Suite, Ryan, Rowena, and Brendan filled her in on what was going on. She also immediately volunteered to join any rescue operation that was undertaken, because despite the bad ending of their relationship, she had actually loved Tom at one point.

After providing Rhylian with Tom's diary, Dumbledore summoned Kingsley and Mad-Eye to Hogwarts and in the privacy of Merlin's office in the Founder's Tower, filled them in on what was happening. They were both skeptical, but trusted Dumbledore enough to not argue with him too much. The real arguing came when Merlin began insisting that any rescue mission include the heirs, as Dumbledore and most of the others didn't believe that this type of mission was any place for children. Merlin then reminded them, of course, that all of the heirs ranged in age from fifteen to seventeen and thus weren't really little kids anymore.

In the end a compromise was reached in that only the heirs who were seventeen and older or who had been legally declared to be adults due to a lordship would be allowed to go on the mission. At which point Lucinda and Mad-Eye accompanied them upstairs to the Gryffindor Suite where they began using Godric's training room to put Harry, Ryan, Nick, Xander, Ernie, Hermione, and Noah through a rigorous training regimen. Dumbledore and Kingsley, who'd been watching from the sidelines, joined in after an hour and by the time they'd been at it for nearly three more hours, the adults were willing to admit that the heirs showed definite promise.

By the end of the day, Rhylian returned to Hogwarts along with his nephew, Atlantean Crown Prince Andenar Rivarendell, the newly named Atlantean Ambassador to Albion and Iwernia. After the introductions were made, Rhylian said, "Well, having the extra items proved useful. Normally, for the spell the Circle and I used only one item belonging to the person being sought would be required, but only using the diary, we were only able to triangulate Tom's location to somewhere in England, which is obviously too big of an area."

Andenar nodded. Since he'd been acting as a temporary fill-in as Lord of Life, overseeing Asheera's place in the Circle while she was in Albion, he'd been allowed to stay and witness the Circle's casting. "Adding in the extra items, however, allowed us to narrow down the search area considerably. First narrowing it down to Yorkshire and then down to within a two mile radius of the village of Little Hangleton."

Dumbledore nodded. "I should have known. Little Hangleton is the location of the graveyard where Voldemort was resurrected two years ago. Although I'm not sure resurrected is the right word since he's immortal."

Rhylian nodded. "Nekronis says that the ritual he did that night was probably done in order to recreate a disguise for himself. His original being destroyed by the backfired Killing Curse years ago. He could appear in his true form, but the moment he does the King of the Hells will be aware of his presence and Nekronis believes that Voldemort probably wants to put that off as long as possible."

Seeing a few confused looks, Andenar said, "The way Nekronis explained it, the original disguise was probably created using a portion of Tom's essence. It's not a spell that would harm Tom, but it allowed Voldemort to hide his presence here on Earth and mask his magical signature to look like Tom's instead of his own. Thus, when he did that ritual, he was creating another disguise for himself, which would read as Tom, even though it isn't actually Tom."

"At any rate," Dumbledore said, "in addition to the graveyard, another significant locale in Little Hangleton is the Riddle House, the mansion previously owned by Tom Riddle's father and grandparents. I've had reports that said that Voldemort was using it as his base of operations."

"Why would the Dark Lord setup shop in an old muggle mansion?" Ernie asked. "I can't imagine that some of his more crazy Death Eaters would like that."

Dumbledore nodded. "You'd probably be correct, Mr. Macmillan, except for the fact that the Riddle House was formerly Gaunt Manor, ancestral home of the pureblood Gaunt family. They lost the mansion along with their once vast fortune a few decades ago. Long enough that nobody alive in the village even remembers that the mansion belonged to anybody other than the Riddle family. Ministry records show that it was once Gaunt Manor, but few people have the patience to go digging that far into the records. However, many of the old pureblood families were likely aware of it from their own families' records."

"Well then, we have a location," Mad-Eye said. "However, we're going to need time to plan a proper assault. Also a layout of the interior would help."

Lucinda nodded. "Indeed, it would. Also some assurance that a majority of the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself won't be present in the mansion when we launch this mission."

Severus, who was upset that he couldn't go on the mission himself, but understood why he couldn't, since it risked blowing his cover as a spy, said, "Headmaster, I think I know when an opportune time would be."

There were a few confused looks at this, prompting Dumbledore to sigh and say, "For those of you who don't know," looking specifically at Noah, Ryan, Nick, and Ernie, "Professor Snape is a member of a group that I founded during the First Wizarding War, called the Order of the Phoenix, that fought against Voldemort and I reformed after he was resurrected. However, he's also a Death Eater and at great personal risk to himself acts as the Order's spy in Voldemort's ranks."

"You will not repeat that to anyone outside of this room," Snape said. "My very life depends on that information not getting back to the Dark Lord or his followers. If I die because one of you blabbed to the wrong person, I swear I will haunt you until the end of time."

"None of you will talk of Professor Snape's role," Harry said after a minute. "Consider that to be an official royal decree."

Ignoring Harry's comment, as he wasn't ready to accept that there might be any validity to the claim that Harry was the reigning monarch now, Snape said, "The Dark Lord has been quite upset with the overall failure of the raid on Hogsmeade and some of the other raids which have been conducted in the last month or so. He's planning a full-scale attack in Inverness in two weeks' time. From what he's said, it sounds like he plans on committing a large portion of his followers and that he will be personally leading the assault."

"So that's probably the best time to strike then," Dumbledore said. "He'll probably leave some sort of force at the mansion, although if we're lucky it'll be negligible, since he won't expect that anyone will be seeking to free Tom from his custody… considering that nobody's done so in the last five decades."

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The next two weeks were spent preparing for the upcoming mission. Dumbledore excused all the heirs who would be going on the mission from attending any classes so that they could spend more time being trained by Mad-Eye, Lucinda, and Kingsley. Hermione was initially not a fan of skipping two weeks' worth of classes, but all the professors provided them with the necessary homework.

Merlin's specially charmed classroom was also used to great effect, as the heirs—including Hermione—all ended up finding themselves understanding the material better than they ever had before. In fact it worked so well that Dumbledore asked Merlin if it would be possible to adapt any of his spells for the school's regular classrooms so that all of the students could benefit. Merlin said he'd take the request under consideration but for the time being he didn't want to potentially aid anybody who might support Voldemort.

The reasoning behind the absence was given simply as family business. Nobody raised in the wizarding world asked any more questions, because as far as they were concerned, the matter was closed, no further questions needed. Of course, there were more than a few muggleborns and muggle-raised who obviously didn't understand the concept and many of the professors were finding this question was frequently being asked of them.

Eventually, McGonagall took matters into her own hands and wrote up an explanation of the Great Houses and what family business meant. She then used a Duplication Charm to make several copies and then had them delivered to nearly every muggleborn and muggle-raised student. There were a few notable exceptions, such as Hermione, who obviously didn't need the explanation since as Lady Gryffindor-Peverell she understood the concept. Justin Finch-Fletchley and Kevin Entwhistle were also among the students who weren't sent the explanation. Justin because he was longtime friends with Ernie and Ryan, and Kevin because he was dating the pureblooded Stephen.

As the heirs were wrapping up their latest training session, Harry had an idea and asked, "Lucinda?"

"Yes, Harry?" Lucinda asked, as she had told all the heirs to call her by her first name, rather than Auror Cromwell as they'd initially referred to her as.

"I just had a thought about how we might hide Tom's escape from Voldemort," Harry said, "and I wanted your opinion."

"Go on," Lucinda prompted.

"What if we replace Tom with somebody else?" Harry asked. "We could glamour them maybe to look like Tom and then Voldemort would hopefully not notice right away."

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, before Lucinda could say anything. "That's a horrible idea. Replace him with somebody else? And make another innocent suffer at that monster's hands?"

"What if they're not innocent though?" Harry asked. "One of the Death Eaters for example."

"And how would you get one of his Death Eaters to agree to your plan?" Ryan asked.

"Call in a life debt?" Harry asked.

Mad-Eye's magical eye swiveled around so that it was looking at Harry through the back of the old auror's own skull for a moment, before he turned and said, "Boy, are you saying that one of the Death Eaters owes you a life debt?"

Harry nodded. "Yes. I stopped Remus and Sirius from killing Peter Pettigrew in my third year, hoping that we could get Sirius cleared of all charges. Unfortunately, Remus forgot to drink his Wolfsbane and the rat escaped, but he'd be dead right now if it wasn't for me." Looking at Hermione, he added, "And I doubt anybody could call Peter innocent… after all, he was my parents' Secret Keeper, who betrayed them to Voldemort."

"Well, I agree he's not innocent," Noah said. "Not only did he make it possible for your parents to be killed, but he's also the one who killed Cedric. But the problem is, he's been a fugitive for three years, so how would we find him? Not to mention the fact that he's probably the worst Gryffindor in the history of the house, because one slap, let alone a whip lash, and he'd be singing like a canary."

"There are spells which could solve that issue," Kingsley put in. "However, the other concern would be that if he's in the dungeon, You-Know-Who will probably notice that he's missing sooner rather than later. From what Severus has said, Wormtail is basically You-Know-Who's personal slave, who prepares and serves all of his meals, and handles any other menial tasks that are set for him."

Harry slumped a bit, as he said, "I hadn't realized that."

"Well, it was a good idea," Lucinda said. "But not every good idea will pan out. You shouldn't let that stop you from making suggestions, however."

After a moment of silence, however, Cameron cleared his throat and said, "Actually, Harry's idea may have some merit after all. At least in terms of the replacing Tom part."

"But who would we replace him with?" Kingsley asked.

"Himself of course," Cameron responded in a tone that suggested it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Huh?" Nick asked. "You've lost me, Cameron."

"The Gemini Charm," Cameron answered. "Pario Geminus. It creates a perfect replica of the person its cast on, with all the person's memories and abilities up to that point. And any magical signature test would show the double to be the real person, as the double is essentially a magical extension of the real thing."

"Well, I admit I hadn't thought of that," Lucinda said. "It could work, but then again, doesn't the double have a mental link with the real person? Which usually results in the real person having dreams about the double's experiences? That's a surefire recipe for a Dreamless Sleep addiction if I ever saw one."

Cameron nodded. "Yes, it would be, but in case you weren't aware of it, Margaret—Merlin's wife–is the one who created the spell. And I know for a fact that she also created a spell that will sever the link between the real person and the double."

"And how do you know that?" Xander asked.

"Because Elizabeth and I helped her," Cameron answered. "It was her idea and she did the actual creation work, but I helped with the necessary Arithmancy equations and Elizabeth helped her with the necessary Runes."

"It could work," Kingsley said, after a moment. "Although there is an ethical quandary. It's always been my understanding that the double is a sentient being. So, do we really want to create a sentient being and put them in a position where we know they're going to be tortured?"

"It isn't though," Cameron said. "It's a very convincing approximation of sentience, but it isn't true sentience. The double can act and think on its own, true, but it doesn't have true sentience. If it did, it would be able to survive the death of the original. Mental link existing or not, if the original dies, the double dies. It doesn't work the other way around, because the double is a magical construct rather than a real person."

"Hmm, that could work then," Mad-Eye said. "Replace Tom with a fake, sever the link, and bring the real one with us. Voldemort will hopefully not realize the switch even happened, for a few months at least."

"Well, I suppose you would be an expert on that," Kingsley said with a grin on his face.

"Oh very funny," Mad-Eye grumbled, his tone clearly indicating that he thought it was the exact opposite, before he walked away, muttering under his breath about damn fool people who refused to let him live down the fact that he'd spent nine months locked in his own trunk while a Death Eater used Polyjuice to steal his face.

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While the heirs going on the mission were doing their training with Mad-Eye, Lucinda, and Kingsley in the Gryffindor Suite, Hannah and Luna were downstairs in the Star Garden with Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Sarah Delaney. Everybody agreed that bringing the Acting Matron of Hogwarts in on everything that was going on was a wise move. Not only because she was Nick's aunt and Xander's former stepmother, but because Tom would undoubtedly require medical attention when they got him out of his prison.

Needless to say, Sarah was horrified after learning what was happening with Tom and offered to go along on the mission to help free him. Dumbledore said no, however, as he didn't want to take too many people, plus Rhylian and Andenar were already participating. While neither of them was technically trained as a healer, Andenar was a Master of the Life Sphere in Atlantis and knew plenty of healing magic as a result. As for Rhylian, while he was Master of the Cosmos Sphere, he had picked up a few things from his wife over the years and they were telepathically linked. So between his own skills and Asheera advising him, he could at least assist Andenar.

"Did you get a look at his injuries?" Sarah asked. "I'll want to examine him personally, of course, but the more I know now the better, especially if his treatment might require potions that aren't normally kept on hand in the Hospital Wing. It's well-stocked for a school infirmary, but I'm afraid the kinds of injuries that Tom is likely to have will go beyond normal school-related injuries."

"He was on a rack when we saw him in Salazar's potion," Luna said. "And he was whipped several times with a cat-o-nine tail."

Hannah nodded. "From the scars on his back, I'm guessing this wasn't the first time he was whipped either."

Sarah nodded. "So, an extra potent scar removal cream will be necessary then. Possibly also Skele-Gro, as there'd be a strong possibility of bone damage on a rack. Torn ligaments and muscles would also be likely."

"After the whipping he also had salt poured into his open wounds," McGonagall added. "Before undergoing the Cruciatus three times in less than five minutes."

"Well, I'm sure that You-Know-Who was doing it because he knew it would hurt," Sarah said. "Although, in a way he may have helped him, because the salt would act as an anti-bacterial agent. There are, however, much more humane ways of preventing infection."

"I suppose preventing infection may have been at least a partial motive," Dumbledore ventured. "As sickening as it is, Voldemort does seem to enjoy torturing Tom, so he probably wouldn't want his favorite toy dying from infected wounds. But if he can cause more pain while also preventing infection, then so be it as far as he's concerned."

"I'll also need everything you can find on this Dark Arts version of the Time Suspension Charm," Sarah said. "I've never heard of it or seen it mentioned in any medical journal, so I don't know if there's any potential negative side effects from Tom being prevented from aging for fifty-three years. At the very least, he's almost certainly going to be addicted to Magical Restorative Drafts. Everything I've ever read on the subject suggests that they're not intended to be taken daily over the course of decades. It's possible that there's something built into the charm to prevent negative side effects, but I'll need to know more about it and examine Tom before I can properly assess that."

"It might be covered in some of the books in the Restricted Section," Dumbledore said. "And I'll check my own library in my office, as I did remove some books that I felt were too dark to be housed even in the Restricted Section."

"And I'll look in Rowena's library," Luna said. "There might be something there."

Sarah nodded, as she made a few notes. "I would also suggest seeking the services of a mind-healer, because fifty-three years of torture would not be good for Tom's psyche. Not just the memories of it, but also repeated uses of the Cruciatus." She paused here for a moment, before adding, "Honestly, I'd suggest the head of St. Mungo's Department of Mind Healing. As a naturally gifted Legilimens, she's one of the foremost experts in mind healing the world over."

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed, I know of her through her brother-in-law. I believe she's trustworthy. Ask her to contact me, Sarah, preferably before we launch Tom's rescue in one week from today. Just don't tell her the reason for the meeting. Security is paramount at this stage and we can't afford any potential information leaks."

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To be continued…

And there you have it, Chapter Twenty-Six of 'Knights of the Founders.' I hope you enjoyed it.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email (Gmail: jaycolin25), my Yahoo group (storiesbyjayson), or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also try to contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at .