A/N: A new reviewer, Shazia Malik, reminded me of a very important character, who I had neglected lo these many chapters. So, I thought I'd give him a chapter of his own to express his importance to the story.
FIFTIETH
Ron made his slow, careful way to the house at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It had once been a small, ramshackle hut in which a low-brow, ill-educated half-giant had lived, but it was now a moderately sized ranch style house, surrounded by an even larger paddock and stables. The roofline's peak sat a good thirty feet in the air, which made the ceilings approximately twenty feet above the floor on the inside of the home. It was built with smooth river rock, grouted with a mixture of gleaming ground limestone and mud, combined with mother of pearl, to give it a shimmery effect, and suited the half-giant's more eclectic tastes. Hesitating for only a moment, the auburn haired Tonks knocked gently on the large door and waited. Moments later, a loud barking from inside alerted the owner to visitors, and the portal was opened, allowing the boarhound to launch himself at the visitor. With reflexes honed by constant use in corralling wayward animals, Hagrid caught the dog mid-leap by his collar, saving Ron a nasty fall to the ground and a horrible bath by tongue.
"Hello, Ron," the man said quietly with a kind smile. The beard had been trimmed back to a more manageable, clean appearance, as had the moustache, leaving Hagrid's face looking less savage. His hair had also been cut shorter, and pulled into a tail at the nape of his neck by a silver snake clasp. "What brings you by?"
"I wanted to stop by and see how you're doing, Hagrid," the child replied softly. "I also wanted to talk to you about a few things, if I may."
"Of course," was the happy reply. "Come in and make yourself comfortable." Ron entered a large living room, with an oak floor covered with soft area rugs of varying patterns. The large man took a chair to the right of a great stone fireplace, while the child took the other chair, which nearly swallowed his small form. Hagrid chuckled fondly as he waved his wand, shrinking the comfortable chair until it was just the right size. The auburn haired boy smiled his gratitude, jumping as a house elf popped in to offer refreshments.
"You have a house elf?" Tonks asked in surprise as he took a chocolate éclair and a glass of strawberry milk.
"Charity is a free elf," Hagrid replied with a smile at the little being, who was wearing a striped pinafore dress and black patent leather flats. She smiled back before popping away. "I was able to talk to the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and they understood that some of the elves that serve the school wished to be freed. They are still able to feed off of the ambient magic of the castle and the wizards and witches within, but they also earn an income, and have rotating days off. Those who remained bound to the castle also earn a wage and have days off, but their wages are a bit smaller than the freed elves."
"Why is that?"
"The freed elves wished to secure lodgings for themselves, so Lord Voldemort told Minister Fudge to have a community apartment built for them in Knockturn Alley. It has a common dining hall, as well as a common kitchen, where all the elves share in the cooking and cleaning duties. The building also has a nursery, and there are nanny elves on hand to help with the baby elves, when they are born."
"That's something that the Alpha didn't tell me," Ron mumbled nearly inaudibly, piquing the half-giant's curiosity. Aloud, he said, "I just wanted to see how you were settling in to your new duties as liaison between the magical creatures and the humans."
"It's the perfect job for me," Hagrid replied blissfully. "I get to meet all manner of magical beings, and I get to learn what it is that concerns them in their interactions with the magicals. I am hoping to take a meeting with Lord Voldemort some time soon, so that I may discuss some ongoing issues that are of some concern to me."
"Anything I can help with?" Ron asked.
"I seem to be butting heads with the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures quite frequently," the half-giant replied after a moment's thought. "In spite of my duties to protect the magical creatures and beings that I come into contact with, the people at the Ministry still insist on treating them as unintelligent, savage animals, which makes my attempts to integrate them into our society difficult. Add to that the prejudice that their ideals pass on to our children, and it's no wonder that the magical creatures and beings choose to stay on the fringes of our world."
"That is a problem," Ron murmured, frowning. "The whole purpose of having you educated and involved with the magical creatures was to be able to welcome them into our societies more fully, so that we may learn from them, and so that we may offer them protection and a better way of life. I know that they have their own communities, and their own protective magics, but I'm sure that we could learn so much from them, and if we're able to set aside our differences and treat them as equals, then they could enrich our world in so many ways. They are magical, created by the Great Lady herself. We cannot keep pushing them aside and treating them like outsiders and animals. If we continue on this path, she may feel that we humans no longer deserve this wonderful gift she has granted us, and will take it away."
"You're right, Ron," Hagrid agreed quietly. "We are dealing her a great, grievous insult by treating any magical beings as lesser than ourselves. We are spitting in the face of Magick itself by doing that. After all, where do we think our magic came from, if not magical beings mating with muggles in the very beginning?"
"I will have a talk with some friends and see what I can do to get you that meeting," Tonks told the large man.
"Thank you, Ron. I am actually glad you came. I've been looking through a photo album that I've had for a good many years, and I'd like you to pass it on for me, if you would." Standing, Hagrid took down a faded, worn book from the mantle of the fireplace, handing it with great reverence to the auburn-haired boy. Opening the cover of the book, midnight blue eyes widened in shock as Ron spied James and Lily Potter in the very first picture, holding hands and smiling at each other.
"W-why would you think that I would be able to give this to anyone?" he stammered nervously. "The Savior of the Wizarding World is dead."
"Come now, Ron," Hagrid chided the preteen gently, "because I'm so large, and not taken very seriously due to my status here, people feel free to speak in front of me as if I don't exist. I've heard things; rumors from some of the other Houses, about a certain son of a certain Dark Lord. Especially after those articles came out in the Daily Prophet. I know that he's alive, though I don't know how, and I also know that he's safe. I am sure that he would appreciate having that photo album, and I know that you wouldn't mind passing it on for me."
"W-what makes you think I would be a part of anything to do with the Dark Lord?" Ron tried to inject just the right amount of indignation in his voice, but knew he had failed by the small smirk on Hagrid's face.
"I know that you and your family are Dark," the half-giant said with a chuckle. "You can't help it. The Prewitts have always been Dark. You only have to look at the twins to see their influence. Since you've embraced the Prewitt legacy, I've seen a tremendous improvement in your power and your schoolwork. As well, that apology you made to the Slytherins in the Great Hall, and your acceptance of them also showed that you are Dark. Besides, I've been able to see auras for a long time, and since you've stopped letting Dumbledore poison yours, I can see how beautifully Dark it is now."
"You're right," Ron finally admitted sheepishly, "he's still alive. While it is true that his muggle relatives beat him to death, Tom Riddle rescued him and used Peter Pettigrew's life force to bring him back."
"Best way to use that backstabbing bastard," Hagrid snarled viciously, letting a bit of his own Darkness bleed through. Ron nodded enthusiastically before continuing.
"Tom then adopted him, making him son and heir. He is now known as Corvus Seiryu Riddle, and he is my Alpha."
"You sound very proud of that fact."
"I am," Ron concurred happily. "Before Pansy saved me, I was miserable. I hated anything to do with the Dark, and I was nothing but a bigoted bully. After she rescued me from bleeding to death, I began to rethink my position. The Slytherins weren't hurting anyone; they went about their daily routine, minding their own business. It was the other Houses that were attacking the Slytherin students that was the problem. I finally saw just what Dumbledore's continued shunning of Slytherin House had done. It had created such a divisive, hostile environment that not even the Slytherin first years were safe from brutal violence.
"It sickened me when a little eleven year old girl was so badly beaten up that she was hospitalized for several days; and then for the students to justify it by saying that she was a Slytherin-that was the only reason she was beaten so badly-that was it. I'd had enough. I made my apology and accepted their invitation to become an honorary member of their house. Then, during Yule, my brothers and I gave Corvus the Marauder's map and his father's invisibility cloak. He was grateful for the gifts of his birth father's legacy, but he gave them back, asking us to keep an eye on his friends here, and to watch for anything that could be used against Dumbledore.
"I started discovering other things, like hidden pensieve memories, and plots by some of the old man's sycophantic followers, and Corvus made me his right hand man. I'm part of something great, and, for the first time in my life, I'm a valued and valuable member of a big family."
"Albus Dumbledore had me by the short hairs since Myrtle Warren died," Hagrid said softly, eyes hazy from looking back into the past. "I had found the acromantula egg that had held Aragog in the Forest, abandoned, and I didn't want the spiderling within to die, so I brought it into the castle and kept it warm until it hatched. Aragog was my truest friend, and he went everywhere with me. Tom Riddle wasn't exactly the friendliest boy, but he wasn't pure evil, either. As time wore on, however, he became more and more maddened. He and I would chat about different things in the beginning, and I thought he was a very smart, very witty and funny boy. Very charming and likeable, too. Then things began to change, and he became Darker and Darker.
"When Myrtle died, Aragog was big enough that it would have raised questions if he would have been seen, so I tried to keep him out of sight as much as possible. The day she died, the Board of Governors was threatening to close the school. Up until then, something had been petrifying the students, but it was only the muggleborns. Myrtle was the first death, and everyone was terrified. If the cause of her death couldn't be found, then the school would be closed, possibly permanently. Tom knew of Aragog; he had helped me raise him, and had given me advice on what to feed him. I had hidden him away in a cupboard so that he would be safe, but Tom led Dippet and Dumbledore right to the hiding place, opening the cupboard and letting my acromantula escape into the night. I was arrested and thrown into Azkaban for having a dangerous creature in the school. The killings and petrifactions stopped and the school stayed open. My wand was snapped and I was expelled from school.
"Into the breach came my 'hero', Albus Dumbledore. He convinced the Wizengamot that I was 'harmless'. That I was too 'dim' to understand the danger in which I had put everyone. He 'volunteered' to take over my 'custody', and 'gave' me the job of groundskeeper so that I could stay at Hogwarts. He had that ratty little hut built for me, and charged me with taking care of everything. He was 'generous' enough to give me back my broken wand, which I put into an umbrella so that I could still use it. He kept me here, beholden to him, so that he had a convenient slave to do his dirty work, up to and including abandoning Harry Potter with his abusive muggle relatives. I didn't want to leave him with them; I protested his placement with them quite loudly, but I had no choice. I had to do what Dumbledore said, or I would be turned out, without a penny to my name.
"It wasn't until I started reading the Daily Prophet that I learned the truth of everything that had happened that ugly year. That it was Tom Riddle, under the influence of Dumbledore, that had caused Myrtle's death, just so that he could make the boy create a horcrux. That's what Corvus is, right? A horcrux? That's how Voldemort knew that Harry was dying."
"Yes, Hagrid. That's how Voldemort rescued Harry Potter and gave him a life and a family that he deserved," Ron said softly.
"I'm glad," Hagrid said after a few thoughtful moments. "James and Lily were my best friends, and two of the finest people I've ever known. What that man did to them; to all of us, should be punished."
"Oh, it will be," Tonks said with a feral gleam in his eye and a sadistic smile on his face. "Corvus will be here for his sixth and seventh year, specifically to make Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore pay for every one of his sins."
"I wish to pledge myself to Corvus Riddle as one of his followers, Ron," Hagrid said. "I would like to be part of that punishment. I feel he has a lot of unpaid debt to me, and I would like to exact my pound of flesh."
"I'll let him know."
Corvus,
Had an interesting talk with Hagrid today. Several things to discuss, but I'll get the most important out of the way first.
He knows you're alive. He knew it before I even talked to him. Some of the recruits from the other Houses have been talking around him, and he assumed rightly from those discussions that you had survived the beating. We'll need to have a discussion with the idiots.
He wants to join you. It seems Saint Dumbledore allowed him to be punished for your father's murder of Myrtle Warren. Tom pinned the crime on Hagrid and Aragog, Hagrid's pet acromantula. He understood that your father was in a bad way at the time, being under Dumbledore's compulsion charms all the time, so he forgives Tom for that, but he doesn't forgive the old man. Dumbledore let Hagrid go to Azkaban, then used his influence in the Wizengamot to get him out, seeing it as a way to keep the giant under his thumb. Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand snapped, so he had to make do. He couldn't go against anything the headmaster said, or he would be out without a penny to his name.
He would like to meet with your father. It seems that he's having some issues with the Ministry in fulfilling his duties to his new job, and your father will be the only one that will be able to iron them out. Just let me know when the meeting can take place.
He also gave me a photo album for you. It's full of pictures of Lily and James, as well as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, your mum and dad's best friends. There are other people in it, too, but I don't know who they are. You'll probably have to have them tell you who they are.
Hagrid wants in on some of the punishment you intend to dole out to the old man. It seems that Dumbledore has racked up quite the tab against the giant, and payment is coming due. Can't wait until you get here. It's gonna be so much fun.
Looking forward to the wedding.
Love, Ron
Ron,
Thanks for the heads up. You'll need to get with the rest of the recruits when we get back from Paris and knock some sense into them. Chattering like that out in the open is beyond stupid. If the wrong people hear them, it could all be over before it's even begun. Remember, you represent me for the fodder, so do what you think is necessary to get the point across.
I'm glad that we have someone so…impressive on our side, and of course he can help me with the punishments. Causing that amount of pain to a child, no matter the heritage of the child, is inexcusable. I will talk with Father about a meeting during our mini vacation. I'm sure he'll be quite amenable to a meeting; after all, it was his suggestion for Hagrid to be given that position of trust, and he wouldn't want to see the man fail.
I'm looking forward to getting the photo album. I've never seen Sirius Black or Remus Lupin, but Dad has told me some things about them. I want to see the man who tortured Severus so badly, and the man who was Prefect but did nothing about the abuse. I want to hear my dad's excuses as to why they were such cowards as to pick on people as badly as they did, for no other reason than the patch on their robes. Should be an interesting conversation.
See you at the wedding.
Love, Corvus
