Chapter Eleven, In Which Much is Disclosed and I Come to Several Revelations
Blaise and I sat in stunned silence.
"His new target?" Blaise said, slightly confused.
"While he was in our captivity, we questioned him thoroughly about what exactly he was doing on our grounds, how he managed to get through the protective spells around the school, and who sent him here. He has a very strong resistance to verita serum, but given three drops of the undiluted potion, as well as putting him under the influence of a manual truth spell, we got some answers to our questions."
"Are you going to tell me what they were?" Blaise inquired.
"Indeed," Dumbledore answered. A few of the witches and wizards gathered in the room looked taken aback. "I have learned from experience that the most productive way of dealing with everyone involved in a difficult situation is to tell the truth," Dumbledore explained to the room. "The whole truth. If I do not, those involved, especially the younger people, tend to find out on their own, putting themselves and others in great danger." Dumbledore stopped and looked down at his desk, then back up at Blaise. "I assume you wish to know everything?" Blaise nodded.
"Then I shall start at the beginning. Forty years ago, before even your sister was born, Blaise, your parents became involved in the dark arts. They were less than terribly kind people while here at Hogwarts, as I'm sure you are aware." Blaise nodded, listening intently. "Less than a year after their graduation, Patricia and Frederick were married. They both had respectable jobs at the Ministry, working in the Department of Magical Messages, which has since been consolidated into part of the main office.
"When Voldemort began gathering followers, the Zabinis were among the first people to swear their loyalty to him. Through their jobs at the Ministry, they were able to keep track of messages sent back and forth between the most powerful witches and wizards of their time, and in doing so, were able to inform Voldemort of what the government knew of him. When Frederick was moved from Magical Messages to Magical Transportation, he was able to cause accidents that disposed of people who knew too much. By pulling strings, sending anonymous threats, and by sheer bullying power, he influenced much of what happened at the Ministry.
"Voldemort was most grateful of course, he paid them extremely well, tying the Zabini couple even closer to him. They promised him their firstborn child in return for even more power over the rest f his followers. Even now they are widely respected by their fellow Deatheaters for their loyalty to the dark lord.
"When your sister, Cornelia was born, your parents, although disappointed that it wasn't a boy, celebrated with a lavish party. They made a mistake, though. At the very end of the party, as people were dispersing, one of your parents cast the Dark Mark into the sky. Ministry professionals were called in immediately, and several of the Deatheaters, including your parents, Blaise, were rounded up and put in Azkaban." Blaise looked shocked.
"Your sister was sent to live with distant cousins on your mother's side, the only surviving relatives she had. Meanwhile, your parents were put on trial. They were convicted of treason, murder, and other things, but after three years, their sentence was appealed. I suppose that Voldemort put several members of the jury under the Imperious Curse, but their sentence was turned over. Your parents were freed."
"Why didn't he just curse the judge?" Blaise wanted to know.
"Too risky," Dumbledore answered frankly. "Judge Hawkins was a very respectable fellow, very much on the side of the light. It would have been extremely suspicious for him to completely change his views, but by magically swaying the jury, he ensured that the Zabinis were returned. After they were released, they suffered a brief period during which they were tortured for their stupidity, but Voldemort returned them to their previous positions. Cornelia was returned to them, and a few months later, you were born. It was barely three months after your birth that Voldemort vanished.
"As Cornelia aged, your parents began to notice the resistance she held against the dark arts. She didn't seem to want to learn them! Most children raised in dark families were very accepting of the death and destruction they were taught. When Cornelia came to Hogwarts, she was sorted into Slytherin, but didn't appear to share the same views as the other Slytherin students. In fact, she was quite open about her opposition to the pureblooded views of half-blood and muggle-born students. She was friends with the Gryffindor house, and made a point of being friendly to the other two houses as well.
"When your parents caught on, they attempted to forbid her from mingling with the other students. On holidays, they tried to beat her into submission. They knew Voldemort would be furious that she dared to defy his beliefs. They were sure that he would blame them for not controlling her properly. They tried the Imperious Curse on her, but she wouldn't submit. Finally in her fifth year, they disowned her. She stayed here for Christmas and Easter holidays, and for the summer, she stayed with a friend. The teachers were all quite concerned for your sister, but she was very brave. She accepted that Patricia and Frederick were different, and did not seem to harbor any anger or resentment towards them.
"The year that Cornelia graduated, Voldemort began his strongest return ever. You were in your third year at Hogwarts, and Voldemort was planning his return here. Somehow, he got wind of Cornelia's decision to join the side of light. He was, as expected, furious with your parents, but since they had you as well, he was not as violent as he could have been. Through a friend at the Ministry, Cornelia found a job as an auror. Her previous connections to dark wizard families helped our side greatly. She was a strong woman, your sister." Dumbledore paused in his recounting. Blaise was watching him intently, his hand still tight around my own. I squeezed his hand in attempted reassurance, but he did not lift his gaze from Dumbledore.
"From the one of the Deatheaters that Cornelia helped catch, we found traces of a frightening plan. I'm sure your parents have told you that Cornelia was a traitor?" Blaise nodded assent. "That was because the witch that Cornelia brought to trial and conviction was one of the people she had stayed with so many years before. Under the influence of a truth spell, she divulged the makings of a complicated plan that would dispose of the threat that Cornelia posed to your parents and to Voldemort.
"Cornelia was smart. With help from the Order of the Phoenix, she disappeared from view. She changed her name and went into hiding, helping annihilate dark wizards through tips that she remembered from home. Then, a new member arrived at Order headquarters. He was a mysterious man, not much of a background that we could find, but what we found seemed to be honest. He had helped the Ministry before, so we all accepted him as one of our own. This man turned out to be a dark spy for the dark side. More specifically, he was a spy for your parents. He stayed just long enough to find out everything that he could about Cornelia Zabini, now known as Alegria White. Then he disappeared, leaving behind no traces. The Order realized what had happened and tried to get to Cornelia, but it was too late. By the time they reached your sister, she had been killed. Among her scattered belongings, we found a tiny, tattered photograph of you from school, and hidden nearby, we found a tiny parcel wrapped in brown paper. She was apparently going to send it to you if she could, but didn't get the chance before she was killed."
"The photograph," Blaise said dully. Dumbledore nodded sadly.
"Yes. We got it to you, and set about finding the man who betrayed not only your sister, but also several other members of the Order. We were forced to switch headquarters and we watched more carefully whom we accepted into the Order. Only people we were absolutely positive about were informed of our hiding places. Despite all of our efforts, we never found the mysterious man who sold us out. Until now.
"The intruder," Blaise said flatly.
"Exactly," Dumbledore agreed. "His name is Thaddeus Nocks. Under the influence of both a truth spell and verita serum, he told us that your parents had an informant here at school-one of the other dark family's son. He had informed them of your reluctance to join what he called 'mudblood bashing,' your distant friendship with Harry Potter, and the traces he'd seen of a secret relationship with an unknown Gryffindor girl." Erin stiffened. She'd gotten him into trouble!
"Your parents know that if Voldemort hears of this, he will quite possibly kill them both for failing yet again to wring the light part of your personality from your mind. They sent Thaddeus to confirm the rumors and, if necessary, cause an accident that would make you unfit to keep at school. Possibly to create enough damage to render you helpless to their power so that they could either keep you in St. Mungo's useless to everyone, or under the Imperious Curse back in their care. If you resisted, they would kill you themselves, or more likely, have Thaddeus do it. After we had the information we needed, we locked him away in a special room inaccessible by students. It appears however that there was a flaw in our defensive structure, for Thaddeus has escaped. We don't know where he is or what he may have told any dark wizard he meets."
"How would he be able to confirm the information the informant had given?" Blaise asked. "Wouldn't it be too dangerous to let the informant know what was going on?"
"Animagus," I realized at once. "A mouse or something, like the whole Peter thing a few years ago."
Dumbledore inclined his head. "Very astute, Erin. Yes, Thaddeus was an unregistered animagus, as the man himself informed us when we questioned him. He can transform at will into a garden snake. He would go relatively unnoticed inside the Slytherin quarters, I'm sure, and he would have been small enough to fit almost anywhere he liked. We were very fortunate to have caught him before he could get inside the castle."
"How did he get onto the grounds in the first place?" I asked.
"A very good question," Dumbledore said.
To be continued….
