Author's note -
Thanks to all who left a review last chapter. You know who you are, especially those who have supported me from the beginning. :-)
I have a diagnosis for my ill health – a hidden hernia that is affecting everything from pain levels to my ability to process food and stopping me sleeping. A operation on the horizon. To be honest, I'm just glad they found something. I had one, not very charming, dr shout out to everyone in the room that '...it's all in her head. She's imagining it because her mum died of cancer'.
On with the story...
…...
Powers Of Persuasion.
"He's Gellert Grindelwald!?" repeated Lovell incredulously.
They'd met up just before breakfast and Buffy had promptly dragged Lovell away from the Great Hall. She'd tugged him out through a side door and hadn't stopped marching until she'd found a secluded bench overlooking the stone circle. There, she'd sat Lovell down and proceeded to break her news.
"Is..." Lovell began, he hesitated – obviously trying to choose his words carefully, "is Aunt Joyce sure that Grindelwald is your father? Could she be mistaken? What if your father is someone else?."
Buffy gave Lovell a dark look. "I know mom went all band candy with a Dark Wizard, but that doesn't mean she's a Faith."
"Band candy? A... Faith?"
"Um, Faith was a girl I once knew – a lifetime ago." Buffy waved her hand and wrinkled her nose. "She was a little bit of a skanky ho, if you know what I mean?"
"Skanky ho? Sorry, what's a..." Lovell coloured when he realised what she meant. "Oh! Um, I didn't mean that... I mean, even if Aunt Joyce was a... You know I'd never say she was a..." Losing the battle for diplomacy, he raked his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. "Look, what I'm trying to say is... is she sure Hank isn't your real dad? She was engaged to him before Grindelwald, they shared an apartment in Paris and..." he gulped and wouldn't look her in the eye, "... she went back to him after the... er, her episode in the lift."
Buffy sucked in a breath. "She wasn't 100% at first and said she wanted me to be Hank's. That's why they got married. After I was born, she found out that a lust potion had been added to the drinks at the party. Marcus was conceived on the same night as well and there were some other babies... Then Grindelwald transferred a lot of cash into her Gringott's account when I was a few months old and she knew. After all, why provide her with maintenance money if he wasn't positive I was his? He knows."
"I don't see how?"
"Dumbledore thinks he's either got one of those family trees that magically announces births or he had some kind of a vision of me. Maybe, both."
The vision thing worried Buffy. What if he'd seen her becoming a Slayer? What if he'd been the one who'd added the lust/fertility potions to the wine served at his party? She didn't like to think that her mom might have walked straight into a trap (and an elevator) set by the charismatic and power-hungry Gellert Grindelwald.
She sighed. "I've gotta face the facts. I'm the product of mom's quickie in an elevator." Since Lovell looked uncomfortable at her discussing his aunt's sex life, she skipped over the gruesome details. "Mom was worried Grindelwald might claim me since I was happily levitating my plushies at a few months old. She went to see Professor Dumbledore. He knows Grindelwald better than anyone."
Buffy took a deep breath to steady herself. This part she really disliked. "Instead of calming her like she'd hoped, he freaked as well and that scared mom even more. Long story short, Dumbledore used an ancient ritual to bind my magic and make me less appealing."
Lovell went quiet, before side-eyeing her. "He was the one all along who'd bound your magic? Why did he... Oh, less appealing. Because Grindelwald would never admit to fathering a Squib."
Buffy scowled. "Yeah. I'm illegitimate, no one would associate me with him, and he'd leave me alone. Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Binding someone's magic must be very dangerous." Lovell shook his head slowly. "I can't believe Professor Dumbledore would risk using that kind of a spell. It's the sort of thing I'd expect a Dark Wizard to do, not a Hogwarts' teacher."
"I'm sure that Wizard we met in London was Grindelwald. He warned me Dumbledore was hiding dark secrets."
Lovell watched her lean back, pulling her legs up onto the bench and hugging her knees against her chest. If he thought it wasn't a very ladylike position for 1942, he didn't say anything.
"Why would a rose bloom late in the season when it promised to unfurl its petals in the spring?" said Lovell out of the blue. Buffy gave him a dubious look and he added, "That's what the mystery man in the park said to you. I thought it an odd message."
"Oh! So Grindelwald knew or guessed what Dumbledore did to me as a baby." She scowled. "Why be all cryptic?"
"Would you have believed him if he'd come right out with it?" Lovell pointed out. "I always thought Professor Dumbledore was one of the nicest teachers here. The sort you'd go to if you were in trouble and needed help."
"Tom doesn't like Dumbledore," Buffy mused, tucking her skirts and robe more securely around her. There was a strong breeze blowing in from the mountains and she was tempted to use a Warming Charm. "I've watched Tom during Transfiguration classes and he's really quiet and keeps giving Dumbledore the side-eye when he thinks no one is watching him."
Lovell flicked her a sharp look which Buffy missed.
"Don't you think it's odd how all this stuff keeps happening to me?" Buffy screwed her nose up as she began ticking everything off on her fingers. "Magic bound as a baby – check. Get attacked by Dark Wizard while out shopping – check. Buried alive under a building – check. Amnesia and orphanage – check. Reincarnated Slayer – check. Multiple fights with magical creatures, check. Then... BAM! The most notorious Dark Wizard of the century turns out to have impregnated my mom."
"You've forgotten the part where vampire slaying is illegal without a Ministry licence and you haven't got one," Lovell helpfully pointed out. "Oh, and there's boggart living in your trunk."
"Tsk! As if I'd forget!" she exclaimed with an exaggerated eye roll. "That reminds me. There's a meeting this evening with Travers and Walburga. I forgot to tell you."
When Lovell hesitated and she added quickly, "You'd better come. I'm not dealing with them on my own."
"You know I don't like Wal– "
"Shh!" Buffy interrupted. She nodded to the standing stones below. A Slytherin boy stood there and Buffy had recognised him as a friend of Dolohov. She let out a puff of relief when he merely looked at them, then turned and walked away.
Once he'd gone, Lovell scanned Buffy's face. "Are you meeting in the room?"
"Nope. We'll just find a disused classroom. There's plenty in the dungeons."
"Don't you think it's odd that a House Elf told you about the Come and Go Room? Why would she do that. Isn't it supposed to be one of the secrets of Hogwarts?"
"Who are you and where's my cousin Lovell?" Buffy joked. "Seriously, what's with you, going all Slytherin on me and looking for ulterior motives?" Yet, she had to admit, the speed at which Tiptoes had spilled the details of the elves' secret store room had surprised her. Had she known Buffy was going to ask her and been primed to say yes? If so, by who? The only person she'd spoken about secret rooms to was Dumbledore, and why would he make it easy for her?
"Less Slytherin suspicion and more Ravenclaw critical thinking," Lovell answered. He waggled his fingers at her to get her attention. "Think about it. Grindelwald is known for his gift of the gab."
"Gift of the huh?" Buffy stared at him blankly, her mind still on Dumbledore and the mysterious Room of Requirement.
Lovell tutted in mock exasperation."Easy to see why you're not a Ravenclaw, cuz."
Buffy glared and dived for him. Trying to mock swipe at his shoulder as he grabbed her back and held her away. "Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"
Lovell laughed. "I am. Ow! That stung. Less hitting of defenceless Wizards, Slayer!"
Buffy pouted at him and shuffled back to her side of the bench.
Her cousin absently rubbed at his shoulder. "It's just... something I've heard them say about Grindelwald. He has the ability to sway an audience to his side with only a few words. They say once he's bewitched you with his silver tongue, you'll do things that you'd normally never consider doing."
She shrugged. "And this has, exactly, what, to do with me? Oh! You think I smooth-talked the elf?" Her face twisted as she thought back to the conversation with Tiptoes.
"I may have played on her feelings," Buffy admitted as she thought back. Maybe Dumbledore had less to do with it than she'd first thought. She held up a finger to warn Lovell not to interrupt. "There was just a little bit of... truth stretching and wheedling going on. I told her I snuck out of Hogwarts to jog. That I'd heard there was a room I could go to inside Hogwarts and I'd prefer to stay indoors due to the creepers out in the Forbidden Forest."
"You know, Miss Summers, the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all Hogwarts pupils, including you," intoned her cousin, mimicking Headmaster Dippet's voice. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, making her smile. If Lovell had any fears she was like Grindelwald, they didn't amount to much.
Then, even as that thought was in her head, his face changed – becoming serious. "Buffy, I don't think you should go into the Forbidden Forest again. There's things in there that are dangerous..."
"I'm fine," Buffy reminded him. "No need to worry."
"...like the phouka," Lovell continued. "He's one of the Fae and you shouldn't trust them."
That made her pause, but not for the reason Lovell was telling her. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention Rory to Tiptoes," she said. "If she finds out I've gotten entangled with a member of the Fae, she might go to Dumbledore. Lovell opened his mouth to argue and she went on, "I can handle the phouka. I'm a Slayer."
"Slayer or not, he could have drowned you that night."
Buffy's eyes flicked to her cousin, realising how much it had worried him knowing she'd been in danger and he hadn't known until the following day.
"And," he went on. "the fact he didn't and swore to help you is weird."
Buffy shuffled her shoes on the bench and shrugged her shoulders. He was thinking of the persuasive powers of Grindelwald again. "With Rory it was less speak-age and more brute strength. The only reason he agreed to help me was the threat of premature male baldness."
"Hmm."
She eyed her cousin, who kicked at a tuft of grass with his toe. "Does it bother you..." she asked, "that he's my father? I'm not... I'm not like him, am I?"
Lovell looked up, frizzy hair falling over his eyes. "No, not really."
Buffy grimaced.
"It's just..." He shook his head and then shrugged. "I haven't met him, only seen photos, and you look like your mum... but... you sort of swagger."
Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Swagger?" Was he joking?
"It's as if you're afraid of nothing and prepared to fight the world."
Dubiously, she regarded her cousin. "I think you're reading too much into this."
"I'm not. I thought it could be a Slayer thing, but maybe it's more of a Grindelwald thing. When you walk into class you are confident..."
Buffy blinked. Confident? She was not confident! Half the time she lost her way because the stairs kept changing or she found out the classroom had moved to a different level and no one had told her. And then there were all those silly mistakes she made with her magic. She either overpowered or her mind wandered off and she forgot what spell she was supposed to be working on.
"... and then there's the way you influence the Pureblood families. Don't frown, you know I'm right about this. The Crabbe's, the Goyles, the Lestranges... and look at the Blacks. They're all notoriously Dark families and they are on your side. And... well, you have to admit it – unlike me – you're popular."
She shrugged. "The Blacks owe me a favour, Fiona and Uma are my roomies, and I'm not interested in being Queen B. " Once, in another lifetime at fifteen, she'd have loved to have been popular; now it no longer held the appeal. All she wanted to do was to pass her OWLs and stay off the Ministry's radar.
"I don't care if Grindelwald is your father," Lovell was saying. He gave her a significant look and added, "Others though? They will."
"Walburga?" Buffy felt sick. The eldest Black would tell her father, and they'd start planning a betrothal party. Marrying Rigel hadn't been mentioned for a while. Buffy had been hoping their silence meant they'd given up and forgotten all about the Life Debt that they owed to her.
"I was thinking more of Caradoc and... others who've had their lives changed for the worse by Grindelwald," Lovell said delicately. There was worry in his eyes and he reached out to touch her arm. "If the Ministry finds out who you are..." he left the sentence hanging in the air, unfinished.
Buffy gnawed at her bottom lip. If they found out she was related to Grindelwald, would they start scrutinizing every move she made? Would they check where she'd been, and discover she'd killed vampires? Would they send her to Azkaban, where the jailers were Dementors?
She grimaced. "Yep. And we have Dumbledore and my mom's biggest fear – Grindelwald laying claim to me. They say that he could make a claim citing mom being an unfit mother because she's a Squib. Dumbledore says that there are a lot of ancient laws about non-magicals rearing magicals and the Wizengamot might agree with him."
"You're living with my dad and me, and we aren't Squibs. And you aren't like that Aurelius Dumbledore who wanted power so joined forces with him." There was real anger in her cousin's face and Buffy wanted to hug him. Despite not knowing her for very long, his faith in her seemed unshakeable.
"You're right. I'm not interested in the world domination thing. There's more important stuff going on in my life right now – like passing my OWLs." She jumped off the bench and grabbed her book bag. "Come on, we're gonna be late. I wanted to take my time over breakfast. A girl needs all the nourishment she can get before facing the ghastly Binns."
"You mean ghostly, not ghastly," corrected Lovell hurrying to her side.
"Oh, nope!" Buffy laughed. "I was right the first time. That guy is ghastly."
….
Tom Riddle looked up when Buffy and Lovell walked through the doors of the Great Hall.
Not that he'd been watching the door or anything. It was just that he happened to be looking in that direction as he was bored and irritated by the present company. Abraxas had annoyed him by discussing his... attractiveness to both sexes and Tom had set about punishing him with silence. Sadly, Malfoy hadn't noticed. He'd been too busy shouting across the table to Alphard about a Quidditch match they'd seen.
Buffy and Lovell were now at the top of the Ravenclaw and Slytherin table. Quickly, he picked up a goblet and began pretending to be engrossed in Malfoy's description of a Seeker's pursuit of a snitch.
Where had Buffy and her cousin been? She'd left the Common Room before him and yet she hadn't been at the breakfast table. What had they been doing? Those two were as thick as thieves; it was almost as if they were plotting...
Buffy's light voice drifted over to him. "I don't know. Halloween has never been a good time for me..."
The volume of her voice dropped, and Tom wasn't able to hear more. It made him wonder. What memories did she have of Halloween? Wasn't she supposed to have amnesia? Muggles didn't celebrate Samhain the way Magical folk did, at least, not in London.
Aware that she was close now and not wanting to appear unfazed in front of his knights, Tom raised the goblet to drink. Just as he tipped the vessel up, someone bumped into his back. The front of his teeth clashed against the rim, sending the contents spilling out over his face, onto his tie and down onto his pullover. With a grimace, he placed the goblet down, grabbed a napkin and began to mop up the worst of the liquid. Then he slowly turned to face Buffy, who was waiting patiently for him to say something.
"What's the meaning of this, Summers?" he hissed, knowing she'd jostled him on purpose. Malfoy and Alphard had stopped talking and were watching, and so were the rest of the knights. Thanks to Abraxas and his idiotic talk earlier, no one was in doubt that he liked her. They'd be sneering at how the first girl Tom Riddle admitted to liking had purposely spilt his drink.
Buffy lifted a hand, to examine her fingernails. "Meaning?"
"You knocked into me," he said flatly. "You did that for a reason."
"Oh, yeah, sorry," she drawled, her voice dripping with false sweetness. She looked up from her fingernails and gave him a hard look. "It's my ass. It's so big that it hits things as I walk. I can't control what it does."
Tom regarded her silently, face impassive, his eyes darkening as his thoughts curled around the shapely form of Buffy's arse.
Next to him, Malfoy was looking Buffy up and down. "What are you on about? You don't have a big arse, Summers. Now if you said your mate, Crabbe, has a big arse I'd agree with you. Her's is massive."
Buffy's attention went to Malfoy. Her eyes were shards of dark-green shimmering anger. "Leave my friends out of this. I don't want to –"
Abraxas held his hands up and interrupted her. "No offence. Didn't mean to insult the girl. Just pointing out that her arse is bigger than your arse. What makes you think you've got a big arse, anyway?"
Buffy's eyes shifted to Tom once more. Green spearing into his navy. "Your friend kindly informed me when he saw it in the infirmary."
Malfoy gaped at her before turning to Tom. "You saw her naked arse?"
"No!" Buffy yelped. At the same time, Tom snapped, "Shut up, Malfoy."
Malfoy shook his head at them. "Don't you think it's time you two sat down and sorted yourselves out? It's obvious to me that the reason neither of you can–."
"I said, keep out of this, Malfoy!" Riddle snarled, his tone harsh.
Abraxas' mouth continued to move, but no sound emerged.
Buffy's eyes dropped to where Tom held his wand half-hidden under the table, and her eyebrows shot up. A Silencing Charm? That charm was notoriously hard to cast correctly, and Tom had used a near-silent incantation. That was one neat piece of casting. She was impressed – despite herself.
"Buffy?" Lovell said. He met her eyes, silently communicating that they should move on, that there wasn't long before their first lesson started. Buffy gave him a small nod in response.
"See you in class, Abraxas." She gave Malfoy a cheerful smile. "Hope Tom takes that charm off you soon. If not, come and see me, I know a good Finite that'll work just fine."
She didn't really care about Malfoy losing his voice, but it wouldn't do letting Tom Riddle think he could impress or outsmart her with a piece of nifty magic. She was a Slayer. Slayers were creatures who took a lot of impressing. They certainly would not find the immature antics of a cute – but sulky – schoolboy anything more than annoying. Nope, she thought, looking into Tom's upturned face – at his even features, jet-black hair and those deep blue eyes that felt as if they were searing her soul – she was not impressed or caring one bit.
