A/N thank you Maria for taking the time to beta.
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Albus Dumbledore watched as all but two of the students in his NEWT level class worked on the transformation. Tom was too busy staring daggers at him to concentrate on the assignment. As for the other non-participant, well Minerva Grindelwald was asleep at her desk.
Had it been History of Magic, such behavior would be expected. However, Dumbledore was confident he put on a much more interesting and interactive class. Supposedly, Binns was ensuring the girl went to sleep at an early enough hour that she would be well rested for the next day. Whether Binns actually did any such thing was an entirely different matter.
Ever slightly more likely, was the possibility that the girl's tiredness was caused by the potion she was made to drink twice a day. Repeated doses of mandrake potion were known to cause drowsiness and fatigue. Still, for the moment, they hadn't a better alternative. He only briefly considered trying to wake her before deciding to allow her to continue sleeping.
Only after the bell rang did Tom manage to tear his eyes away from Dumbledore. The girl woke up just long enough to wrap her arms around Tom's neck as he carried her out the door with the rest of the class.
"Professor. Professor Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore turned, surprised to discover not all of the students had left. Collecting himself, Dumbledore offered the young lady standing before him a welcoming smile.
"Miss Bones. Excellent work today."
"Thank you, sir."
The girl looked as though something were troubling her. Not an entirely uncharacteristic look for her during the past year. Her father's murder had naturally been quite unsettling to her.
Dumbledore walked around to the other side of his desk and sat at one of the empty student desks. Miss Bones sat at a desk beside him. He watched her nervously pick at the edges of her clear nail shine, but said nothing, allowing her time to collect her own thoughts. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, she did speak.
"Sir, don't you find it odd?"
When she paused uncertainly, Dumbledore smiled reassuringly.
"Indeed, I couldn't agree with you more. It is most peculiar."
Amelia Bones smiled. It was an occurrence that was once again becoming common for the Hufflepuff Head Girl, after a long period of rarity.
"I haven't told you what I find odd yet."
Dumbledore tried to make a face that properly conveyed a sense of surprise, as though that thought had not yet occurred to him.
"Ah, but I know you to have excellent skills of appraisal on such matters."
His jovial expression became fixed and forced as the girl expanded upon her statement.
"Don't you find it odd that Tom had a kitten named Kitten that went everywhere with him and now that kitten is gone, but there is a little girl named Kitten that goes everywhere with him?"
He could feel Amelia Bones's eyes searching his face for some sort of reaction. Indeed, Amelia was generally a very good judge of character. Less than two days and already the cracks in Dippet's master plan were showing. He knew he had to answer quickly to distract the perceptive young girl, but Dippet's suggested explanations were too incredibly flimsy.
"The cat Tom was taking care of belonged to the family of a muggle boy who was here for a short time."
"Thomas McGonagall."
Dumbledore nodded. It was so much easier to get someone to accept, to believe an untruth if rather than tell them it directly, you let them draw the conclusion themselves.
"The McGonagalls requested their cat back."
That was not at all a lie actually. He had once overheard Shackleton ordering Binns to find the cat.
Amelia looked slightly uncertain as she tried to draw a conclusion from his statement.
"So they left their daughter here, but took the cat back?"
Dumbledore tried to show his indifference with a shrug.
"Well, you certainly won't ever see both in the same place at the same time."
Amelia frowned. She was an intelligent young lady and clearly the story Dippet had come up with, well it was as poorly put together as one of Binns's better excuses.
Dumbledore was more than a little surprised when Miss Bones choose not to press that aspect of the matter further. He was rather uncomfortable with the thought that it was only her trust in him that kept her from pursuing it.
"Muggles are so…" She wrinkled up her face in disgust. " …odd. Naming their pets and their children the same thing. And what kind of a name for a girl is "Kitten'? At least use a girl's name like 'Susan' or 'Emily' for both."
The girl shook her head at the thoughtlessness of muggles for a moment before moving back to more serious matters.
"I don't understand why anyone would leave their cat with Tom, but I guess it's just a cat."
Again her eyes were boring into him, seeking some answer.
"But why is the girl with Tom?"
Dumbledore's frown matched Amelia's expression and was not at all forced.
"That was the Headmaster's doing. The girl was sorted into Slytherin and Tom is in Slytherin. Dippet thought as Head Boy, he could handle the added responsibility."
"I could help her get to her classes."
Dumbledore didn't quite know how to respond.
"That is a kind offer."
Her remained silent after merely acknowledging the offer. Were it anyone else offering, he would have seized on the opportunity and brought the suggestion to the Headmaster. He felt despicable enough lying to Amelia at all, but the idea of requesting that Amelia Bones assist the girl without knowing that it was the daughter of the man who murdered her father was just abominable.
Despite Dippet's assurances to the Minister that the matter could be kept quiet, all involved knew it was only a matter of time before the knowledge got out.
He was aware that he would have a difficult enough time if he ever hoped to regain Amelia Bones's trust once that happened without her having that added betrayal.
Amelia was a true Hufflepuff. He hoped that when the truth came out, she would still have the same charitable thoughts towards the young girl who was in no way at fault for Grindelwald's acts. Realistically, he was acutely aware this would not necessarily be the case. While Hufflepuffs were just, they were also fiercely loyal. As to which of the two characteristics would prevail in the end, he could not say.
"Sir?"
Dumbledore gave a slight shake of his head.
"Headmaster Dippet claims to have his reasons for leaving the girl in Mr. Riddle's care."
Certainly, the Headmaster had made that claim, but he refused to share those reasons with anyone else.
Again he could see that look on Amelia's face, that troubled, strained expression. Her eyes no longer searched his face for a truth.
"I just don't think she should be left with Tom."
Immediately all other thoughts stopped. A cold chill overtook him as he shifted closer to the edge of his chair. It was his turn to search for the truth in a face that's eyes did not care to be met. He attempted to keep his voice even, but he wasn't sure of how well he managed.
"Why not?"
Looking towards the window, not towards him, she gave her own shrug that like his failed to come across as indifferent.
"No reason. I just, well, she's a girl and Tom's…not."
Resisting the urge to reach out and gently turn her face to look in his eyes, Dumbledore peered at her over the half-moons of his spectacles. He managed to get his tone gentle and reassuring this time.
"Miss Bones, Amelia, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
With only the slightest hesitation she shook her head.
"No, sir."
"Amelia, if Tom has done something, if you know of anything he has done, its very important that you tell me."
He watched as this time she did hesitate a moment, considering. In the end, she again shook her head.
"It's just odd, sir."
She finally turned to look at him. Her eyes were troubled, but they weren't that troubled. More uncertain than anything else.
"He's just…odd, sir."
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Professor Tofty grasped the edges of his desk with both hands to steady himself.
"Try again, dearie. Only this time, just the feather."
Watching the other half of the room float from the 'Wingardium Leviosa' spell this time, Professor Tofty gave a weak smile to the small child before him.
Muggleborn, his arse. He didn't know how the hell Armando Dippet had managed to conjure up another one and he certainly wasn't going to ask, but muggleborn his arse!
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Armando Dippet looked up as Master Viinder entered his office without knocking.
"Are you aware that in some cultures, it is considered common courtesy to knock?"
His wonder was short lived as Mr. Riddle and Miss Grindelwald entered behind him. Whatever had the girl done now?
"Master Viinder, Mister Riddle, Miss McGonagall. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Armando, you need to see this!"
Dippet tensed as the overly excited Divination Master reached for the girl's hand, but young Mr. Riddle averted any potential problems by stepping in the way.
"I explained to you already, sir. She doesn't like strangers touching her."
The young professor nodded and motioned Riddle to do it.
"Right, right."
Riddle settled the girl in one of the empty seats before the desk and held her hand out, palm up. At Master Viinder's beckoning, Dippet rose from his seat and made his way around his desk.
Master Viinder allowed him only a moment before prompting him for a response.
"What does it mean? What is she?"
Dippet traced a finger over the girl's palm. Over the spot where a line should be, but wasn't. The girl had no life line. It wasn't that she had a particularly short one or a thin, brittle one. She just didn't have one.
He of course knew exactly what it meant. She was never intended to be born. It was only through entirely unnatural means - unicorn blood - that Grindelwald or Artemisia had managed to keep her alive. Something he could hardly explain to the other man.
Instead, Dippet shrugged.
"It signifies nothing."
Master Viinder not surprisingly frowned.
"Not even combined with this?"
The young diviner produced a deck of tarot cards. He displayed all seventy-eight on the desk. He showed all to be face down with their decorative backs showing, not the figures on the other side. He then restacked the cards and shuffled.
It was Viinder's custom to have the one for whom he was doing a reading cut the deck. With a slight prompting from Mr. Riddle, the girl did so.
Immediately, the problem became clear.
The direction of the topmost cards had changed. Now if Master Viinder were to place down the top ten cards for a reading, he would not be showing any of the informative figures, but instead be dealing out the same design that was depicted on the back of all the cards.
"Well? What do you make of it?"
Dippet noticed Mr. Riddle was also looking at him inquiringly.
"Master Viinder, the hour is not yet even half over. Have you left your class unattended to come here?"
The young professor ignored the rebuke.
"I let them all go early. Explain this."
Dippet frowned and turned an inquiring gaze to Mr. Riddle as the young professor summoned a tea service. When Riddle merely gave a slight shrug of his shoulders in response, he turned his attentions to the girl.
Surprisingly, the tea set did not upset her this time. Master Viinder in his babblings soon explained.
"Muggles are so destructive." The young professor shook his head exasperated. "When I first tried to give her a reading, she started smashing all the tea cups. Absolutely barbaric; muggles can't even have a proper afternoon tea."
Well, at least it was good to have substantiation that the girl's behavior could be altered. How Master Viinder had managed such a happening would be good to know for future use. Dippet was soon revolted to discover the exact methods used.
He watched as the professor put a dozen cubes of sugar into a teacup and then half filled it with milk. Seeing Dippet's horrified expression, Master Viinder explained as he filled the small space remaining with tea.
"It is the only way we could get her to drink it."
Dippet felt positively ill watching the girl drink the concoction that could no longer be defined as tea. When she was through drinking, Viinder displayed the empty teacup triumphantly.
"Look, no leaves!"
"Naturally there are no leaves. There was no tea in it."
Dippet watched Master Viinder frown. After a moment, the divination instructor acquiesced. He began to prepare a new cup without sugar or milk.
However, when he held it out to the girl, she turned away refusing. Mr. Riddle too tried to coax her, but to no avail. Finally, in desperation, Master Viinder held out both the teacup and the entire dish of sugar.
"If you drink the tea, you can have all the sugar. Just not in the tea."
That offer got the girl's attention. She appeared to contemplate the matter for a moment.
"And the milk."
Master Viinder made no attempt to haggle. He quickly handed over the milk as well.
Once the tea was gone, Dippet stared transfixed as the child began putting cubes of pure, unadulterated sugar in her mouth. Merlin save us all, even Dumbledore wasn't quite that bad.
"Armando! Armando, look!"
Finally he tore his eyes away from the child to look at the cup. There were again no leaves remaining. He really had to put an end to this and quickly.
"Perhaps you failed to notice, but the girl is a bit odd. She probably ate the leaves."
Master Viinder looked somewhat deflated.
'She is a muggle-born, so I suppose anything is possible."
Dippet did not fail to notice the look of outrage on Mr. Riddle's face. Whether it was at the slight towards muggle-borns or towards the girl, he was not certain.
Dippet gave a sigh of frustration. While he could understand the lack of life line, he had no idea what the other strange portents might mean. As he could hardly explain the matter of the life line to the other man and it would not do to allow him to continue speculating on the child….
"Clearly all it means is that the girl dislikes divination. As such she will no longer be continuing in your class. Mr. Riddle will instead deliver her to me everyday for an early afternoon tea."
The arrival at the door of the eager History of Magic Master was a most welcome diversion.
"So, who did the little savage get this time? Was it Shackleton?"
Dippet frowned.
"Don't you have a class now, Master Binns?"
That seemed to take a bit of the cheer out of the new arrival.
"Yes, but they are…resting right now. I saw those two go by the door. Who did she bite this time?!"
"This is an academy of learning, you people can not just keep canceling your classes whenever you feel like it! First Pomfrey and Kettleburn, now you two!"
"Mr. Riddle, go to the common rooms and tell the other students to get back to their classes. Miss McGonagall will remain here. You may come collect her again after your lesson. Master Viinder, I would have a word with you downstairs in private. Master Binns, stay here and watch the girl until I return."
After traveling down the passageway with the two young men, Dippet detained his divination instructor. He did not speak until Mr. Riddle was an entire corridor away.
"Mr. Riddle, he is in your seventh year class? I have been around him much of late and I had not gotten the sense that he has the Gift."
Armando Dippet found Master Viinder's response most interesting.
"No, he does not. I do usually limit my seventh year class to only those with at least some ability of their own, but I made an exception in Tom Riddle's case. While not actually having the Sight, he does have a remarkable appreciation for the art. He seems to understand the potential importance of it. Something we both know to be quite unusual for one lacking the Sight.
Dippet asked a question that had been bothering him for some time now.
"Have you ever had any Visions regarding Mr. Riddle, his future?"
Viinder seemed a bit embarrassed as he made an admission.
"No. I have tried, but I never have."
The disclosure did not at all take aback Dippet. The Gift did not work that way. It was often quite unpredictable in what and to whom it chose to show things. Besides, though Eres Viinder was a Seer, he was not an especially talented one. Certainly, if he were, he would not be in the employment of Hogwarts. The more Gifted diviners were routinely found in Ministry work or the private sector.
Even the girl's father, Grindelwald, had been more Gifted than Viinder and engaged by the Ministry even before his abilities had been tampered with by Artemisia and later the girl. It was concern for what omens the girl might facilitate Master Viinder in seeing, that had made him decide it would not do to allow her to continue attending the Divination classes.
"Have you? Had any Visions of Tom's future, that is?"
Dippet did answer, but he chose not to elaborate.
"Just one."
After watching the Divination Master depart, Armando Dippet rode the revolving staircase back up to his office to see if Binns was dead yet.
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A/N Next chapter will be up in a few days, I just got it back from being betaed. It continues right where this one left off and will include information on Dippet's vision of Tom's future..
Just to clear up a few things that I wanted the reader to know by now that may have been missed in the roundabout way I went of revealing some things.
Grindelwald was indeed a Seer in his own right. It's just that Dippet and Artemisia were much more powerful in that area than he was. The Sight is meant to vary in it's strength from person to person. Think of it this way, as much as everyone dismisses Trelawney, she has made at least two predictions and is considered a Seer.
Through a blood marriage bond, Artemisia pooled her abilities with Grindelwald, allowing him to share in some of her Vision and visions.
With Artemisia's death, the pooling of powers ended. Grindelwald's Sight should have and did revert back to its earlier Trelawney like levels.
However, Minerva is what was once known as a foci. (Foci is just the plural of the word focus. Foci, however just happens to sound a lot more interesting and exotic) Dippet described it for us once as 'the unusual ability to take the powers and energies of another and before returning them, so concentrate, so direct them as to make them magnified far beyond what they normally would be.' She enabled Grindelwald to again enhance his abilities.
Now a few things have not actually been stated that boldly, but merely suggested in passing to prepare you for their later revelation. When Dippet thought it was Grindelwald who had transfigured Minerva into a cat, he made a reference to wondering why ever Grindelwald would pick a creature so likely to bite and scratch people.
Though Binns is fairly unreliable in some, well okay most, of the things he says, in a lecture he briefly mentioned the biting and scratching habits of vampires, werewolves, and some Themis. This will be expanded upon later in the story.
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Thanks for reviewing Laura Kay, Darlingdearheart, Minerva Lea, Juliet's Rose, Morocco, and Margo.
Darlingdearheart - I am very excited to see a new reviewer. I'm sorry to disappoint, but my name isn't Margo. I was just labeling who my answers were for. Hope that doesn't take away from the story for you!
Margo - Quite a bit more will be shown about the relationship between Tom & Minerva so you will get to decide for yourself in the next few chapters. All predictions made will one way or another come true. Since the only possible narrator still available for the years Minerva spent with Grindelwald will never actually offer more than a few verbal tidbits, answers about him will be hard to come by and usually only implied. Eventually you will be able to decide for yourself if he was tampering with the future or merely acting the part he was destined to play. Everything else you have asked about will be dealt with in detail at their proper time.
Juliet's Rose - Glad you are enjoying the story. Number of chapters remaining to this flashback is kind of hard to gauge at the moment. I will say that I hope to start churning out chapters a little bit more quickly and have the flashback ended if not by Christmas, than by New Year.
Laura - Your compliments always leave me blushing. I'm delighted to know the earlier chapters have more depth now when you reread them. That is exactly what I am going for. And long reviews are my favorite. They let me know you are really enjoying the story if you take that long to reply. Also it lets me know if I am throwing you too far off of the track with some of the little misdirections I put in the story.
Ch 29 - I think between this and especially the next chapter, you will have a much better idea of what influences Dippet's POV. I hope the part above cleared up the thing about Minerva's unusual ability. If not please do let me know. As for the animagus bit, well its not really considered one of the defining abilities for the Themis. Much like the ability to turn yourself invisible at will, it is something that can be learned and is not innate. Yes, that was a hint that Loki implied an untruth to Tonks in one of the early chapters.
Ch 30 - As for the picture, what can I say? Could of, would of, should of. The portrait has already made it pretty clear that no one thinks to talk to him for a very long time.
If you reread the section with Kettleburn (or a few of the other chapters) enough times, you might pick up on something that is there but that you are meant to gloss over.
I think by the end of this chapter it will be pretty clear to you she has not yet gotten over her delight at sweets, but eventually there will be a reason given.
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Albus Dumbledore watched as all but two of the students in his NEWT level class worked on the transformation. Tom was too busy staring daggers at him to concentrate on the assignment. As for the other non-participant, well Minerva Grindelwald was asleep at her desk.
Had it been History of Magic, such behavior would be expected. However, Dumbledore was confident he put on a much more interesting and interactive class. Supposedly, Binns was ensuring the girl went to sleep at an early enough hour that she would be well rested for the next day. Whether Binns actually did any such thing was an entirely different matter.
Ever slightly more likely, was the possibility that the girl's tiredness was caused by the potion she was made to drink twice a day. Repeated doses of mandrake potion were known to cause drowsiness and fatigue. Still, for the moment, they hadn't a better alternative. He only briefly considered trying to wake her before deciding to allow her to continue sleeping.
Only after the bell rang did Tom manage to tear his eyes away from Dumbledore. The girl woke up just long enough to wrap her arms around Tom's neck as he carried her out the door with the rest of the class.
"Professor. Professor Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore turned, surprised to discover not all of the students had left. Collecting himself, Dumbledore offered the young lady standing before him a welcoming smile.
"Miss Bones. Excellent work today."
"Thank you, sir."
The girl looked as though something were troubling her. Not an entirely uncharacteristic look for her during the past year. Her father's murder had naturally been quite unsettling to her.
Dumbledore walked around to the other side of his desk and sat at one of the empty student desks. Miss Bones sat at a desk beside him. He watched her nervously pick at the edges of her clear nail shine, but said nothing, allowing her time to collect her own thoughts. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, she did speak.
"Sir, don't you find it odd?"
When she paused uncertainly, Dumbledore smiled reassuringly.
"Indeed, I couldn't agree with you more. It is most peculiar."
Amelia Bones smiled. It was an occurrence that was once again becoming common for the Hufflepuff Head Girl, after a long period of rarity.
"I haven't told you what I find odd yet."
Dumbledore tried to make a face that properly conveyed a sense of surprise, as though that thought had not yet occurred to him.
"Ah, but I know you to have excellent skills of appraisal on such matters."
His jovial expression became fixed and forced as the girl expanded upon her statement.
"Don't you find it odd that Tom had a kitten named Kitten that went everywhere with him and now that kitten is gone, but there is a little girl named Kitten that goes everywhere with him?"
He could feel Amelia Bones's eyes searching his face for some sort of reaction. Indeed, Amelia was generally a very good judge of character. Less than two days and already the cracks in Dippet's master plan were showing. He knew he had to answer quickly to distract the perceptive young girl, but Dippet's suggested explanations were too incredibly flimsy.
"The cat Tom was taking care of belonged to the family of a muggle boy who was here for a short time."
"Thomas McGonagall."
Dumbledore nodded. It was so much easier to get someone to accept, to believe an untruth if rather than tell them it directly, you let them draw the conclusion themselves.
"The McGonagalls requested their cat back."
That was not at all a lie actually. He had once overheard Shackleton ordering Binns to find the cat.
Amelia looked slightly uncertain as she tried to draw a conclusion from his statement.
"So they left their daughter here, but took the cat back?"
Dumbledore tried to show his indifference with a shrug.
"Well, you certainly won't ever see both in the same place at the same time."
Amelia frowned. She was an intelligent young lady and clearly the story Dippet had come up with, well it was as poorly put together as one of Binns's better excuses.
Dumbledore was more than a little surprised when Miss Bones choose not to press that aspect of the matter further. He was rather uncomfortable with the thought that it was only her trust in him that kept her from pursuing it.
"Muggles are so…" She wrinkled up her face in disgust. " …odd. Naming their pets and their children the same thing. And what kind of a name for a girl is "Kitten'? At least use a girl's name like 'Susan' or 'Emily' for both."
The girl shook her head at the thoughtlessness of muggles for a moment before moving back to more serious matters.
"I don't understand why anyone would leave their cat with Tom, but I guess it's just a cat."
Again her eyes were boring into him, seeking some answer.
"But why is the girl with Tom?"
Dumbledore's frown matched Amelia's expression and was not at all forced.
"That was the Headmaster's doing. The girl was sorted into Slytherin and Tom is in Slytherin. Dippet thought as Head Boy, he could handle the added responsibility."
"I could help her get to her classes."
Dumbledore didn't quite know how to respond.
"That is a kind offer."
Her remained silent after merely acknowledging the offer. Were it anyone else offering, he would have seized on the opportunity and brought the suggestion to the Headmaster. He felt despicable enough lying to Amelia at all, but the idea of requesting that Amelia Bones assist the girl without knowing that it was the daughter of the man who murdered her father was just abominable.
Despite Dippet's assurances to the Minister that the matter could be kept quiet, all involved knew it was only a matter of time before the knowledge got out.
He was aware that he would have a difficult enough time if he ever hoped to regain Amelia Bones's trust once that happened without her having that added betrayal.
Amelia was a true Hufflepuff. He hoped that when the truth came out, she would still have the same charitable thoughts towards the young girl who was in no way at fault for Grindelwald's acts. Realistically, he was acutely aware this would not necessarily be the case. While Hufflepuffs were just, they were also fiercely loyal. As to which of the two characteristics would prevail in the end, he could not say.
"Sir?"
Dumbledore gave a slight shake of his head.
"Headmaster Dippet claims to have his reasons for leaving the girl in Mr. Riddle's care."
Certainly, the Headmaster had made that claim, but he refused to share those reasons with anyone else.
Again he could see that look on Amelia's face, that troubled, strained expression. Her eyes no longer searched his face for a truth.
"I just don't think she should be left with Tom."
Immediately all other thoughts stopped. A cold chill overtook him as he shifted closer to the edge of his chair. It was his turn to search for the truth in a face that's eyes did not care to be met. He attempted to keep his voice even, but he wasn't sure of how well he managed.
"Why not?"
Looking towards the window, not towards him, she gave her own shrug that like his failed to come across as indifferent.
"No reason. I just, well, she's a girl and Tom's…not."
Resisting the urge to reach out and gently turn her face to look in his eyes, Dumbledore peered at her over the half-moons of his spectacles. He managed to get his tone gentle and reassuring this time.
"Miss Bones, Amelia, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
With only the slightest hesitation she shook her head.
"No, sir."
"Amelia, if Tom has done something, if you know of anything he has done, its very important that you tell me."
He watched as this time she did hesitate a moment, considering. In the end, she again shook her head.
"It's just odd, sir."
She finally turned to look at him. Her eyes were troubled, but they weren't that troubled. More uncertain than anything else.
"He's just…odd, sir."
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Professor Tofty grasped the edges of his desk with both hands to steady himself.
"Try again, dearie. Only this time, just the feather."
Watching the other half of the room float from the 'Wingardium Leviosa' spell this time, Professor Tofty gave a weak smile to the small child before him.
Muggleborn, his arse. He didn't know how the hell Armando Dippet had managed to conjure up another one and he certainly wasn't going to ask, but muggleborn his arse!
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Armando Dippet looked up as Master Viinder entered his office without knocking.
"Are you aware that in some cultures, it is considered common courtesy to knock?"
His wonder was short lived as Mr. Riddle and Miss Grindelwald entered behind him. Whatever had the girl done now?
"Master Viinder, Mister Riddle, Miss McGonagall. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Armando, you need to see this!"
Dippet tensed as the overly excited Divination Master reached for the girl's hand, but young Mr. Riddle averted any potential problems by stepping in the way.
"I explained to you already, sir. She doesn't like strangers touching her."
The young professor nodded and motioned Riddle to do it.
"Right, right."
Riddle settled the girl in one of the empty seats before the desk and held her hand out, palm up. At Master Viinder's beckoning, Dippet rose from his seat and made his way around his desk.
Master Viinder allowed him only a moment before prompting him for a response.
"What does it mean? What is she?"
Dippet traced a finger over the girl's palm. Over the spot where a line should be, but wasn't. The girl had no life line. It wasn't that she had a particularly short one or a thin, brittle one. She just didn't have one.
He of course knew exactly what it meant. She was never intended to be born. It was only through entirely unnatural means - unicorn blood - that Grindelwald or Artemisia had managed to keep her alive. Something he could hardly explain to the other man.
Instead, Dippet shrugged.
"It signifies nothing."
Master Viinder not surprisingly frowned.
"Not even combined with this?"
The young diviner produced a deck of tarot cards. He displayed all seventy-eight on the desk. He showed all to be face down with their decorative backs showing, not the figures on the other side. He then restacked the cards and shuffled.
It was Viinder's custom to have the one for whom he was doing a reading cut the deck. With a slight prompting from Mr. Riddle, the girl did so.
Immediately, the problem became clear.
The direction of the topmost cards had changed. Now if Master Viinder were to place down the top ten cards for a reading, he would not be showing any of the informative figures, but instead be dealing out the same design that was depicted on the back of all the cards.
"Well? What do you make of it?"
Dippet noticed Mr. Riddle was also looking at him inquiringly.
"Master Viinder, the hour is not yet even half over. Have you left your class unattended to come here?"
The young professor ignored the rebuke.
"I let them all go early. Explain this."
Dippet frowned and turned an inquiring gaze to Mr. Riddle as the young professor summoned a tea service. When Riddle merely gave a slight shrug of his shoulders in response, he turned his attentions to the girl.
Surprisingly, the tea set did not upset her this time. Master Viinder in his babblings soon explained.
"Muggles are so destructive." The young professor shook his head exasperated. "When I first tried to give her a reading, she started smashing all the tea cups. Absolutely barbaric; muggles can't even have a proper afternoon tea."
Well, at least it was good to have substantiation that the girl's behavior could be altered. How Master Viinder had managed such a happening would be good to know for future use. Dippet was soon revolted to discover the exact methods used.
He watched as the professor put a dozen cubes of sugar into a teacup and then half filled it with milk. Seeing Dippet's horrified expression, Master Viinder explained as he filled the small space remaining with tea.
"It is the only way we could get her to drink it."
Dippet felt positively ill watching the girl drink the concoction that could no longer be defined as tea. When she was through drinking, Viinder displayed the empty teacup triumphantly.
"Look, no leaves!"
"Naturally there are no leaves. There was no tea in it."
Dippet watched Master Viinder frown. After a moment, the divination instructor acquiesced. He began to prepare a new cup without sugar or milk.
However, when he held it out to the girl, she turned away refusing. Mr. Riddle too tried to coax her, but to no avail. Finally, in desperation, Master Viinder held out both the teacup and the entire dish of sugar.
"If you drink the tea, you can have all the sugar. Just not in the tea."
That offer got the girl's attention. She appeared to contemplate the matter for a moment.
"And the milk."
Master Viinder made no attempt to haggle. He quickly handed over the milk as well.
Once the tea was gone, Dippet stared transfixed as the child began putting cubes of pure, unadulterated sugar in her mouth. Merlin save us all, even Dumbledore wasn't quite that bad.
"Armando! Armando, look!"
Finally he tore his eyes away from the child to look at the cup. There were again no leaves remaining. He really had to put an end to this and quickly.
"Perhaps you failed to notice, but the girl is a bit odd. She probably ate the leaves."
Master Viinder looked somewhat deflated.
'She is a muggle-born, so I suppose anything is possible."
Dippet did not fail to notice the look of outrage on Mr. Riddle's face. Whether it was at the slight towards muggle-borns or towards the girl, he was not certain.
Dippet gave a sigh of frustration. While he could understand the lack of life line, he had no idea what the other strange portents might mean. As he could hardly explain the matter of the life line to the other man and it would not do to allow him to continue speculating on the child….
"Clearly all it means is that the girl dislikes divination. As such she will no longer be continuing in your class. Mr. Riddle will instead deliver her to me everyday for an early afternoon tea."
The arrival at the door of the eager History of Magic Master was a most welcome diversion.
"So, who did the little savage get this time? Was it Shackleton?"
Dippet frowned.
"Don't you have a class now, Master Binns?"
That seemed to take a bit of the cheer out of the new arrival.
"Yes, but they are…resting right now. I saw those two go by the door. Who did she bite this time?!"
"This is an academy of learning, you people can not just keep canceling your classes whenever you feel like it! First Pomfrey and Kettleburn, now you two!"
"Mr. Riddle, go to the common rooms and tell the other students to get back to their classes. Miss McGonagall will remain here. You may come collect her again after your lesson. Master Viinder, I would have a word with you downstairs in private. Master Binns, stay here and watch the girl until I return."
After traveling down the passageway with the two young men, Dippet detained his divination instructor. He did not speak until Mr. Riddle was an entire corridor away.
"Mr. Riddle, he is in your seventh year class? I have been around him much of late and I had not gotten the sense that he has the Gift."
Armando Dippet found Master Viinder's response most interesting.
"No, he does not. I do usually limit my seventh year class to only those with at least some ability of their own, but I made an exception in Tom Riddle's case. While not actually having the Sight, he does have a remarkable appreciation for the art. He seems to understand the potential importance of it. Something we both know to be quite unusual for one lacking the Sight.
Dippet asked a question that had been bothering him for some time now.
"Have you ever had any Visions regarding Mr. Riddle, his future?"
Viinder seemed a bit embarrassed as he made an admission.
"No. I have tried, but I never have."
The disclosure did not at all take aback Dippet. The Gift did not work that way. It was often quite unpredictable in what and to whom it chose to show things. Besides, though Eres Viinder was a Seer, he was not an especially talented one. Certainly, if he were, he would not be in the employment of Hogwarts. The more Gifted diviners were routinely found in Ministry work or the private sector.
Even the girl's father, Grindelwald, had been more Gifted than Viinder and engaged by the Ministry even before his abilities had been tampered with by Artemisia and later the girl. It was concern for what omens the girl might facilitate Master Viinder in seeing, that had made him decide it would not do to allow her to continue attending the Divination classes.
"Have you? Had any Visions of Tom's future, that is?"
Dippet did answer, but he chose not to elaborate.
"Just one."
After watching the Divination Master depart, Armando Dippet rode the revolving staircase back up to his office to see if Binns was dead yet.
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A/N Next chapter will be up in a few days, I just got it back from being betaed. It continues right where this one left off and will include information on Dippet's vision of Tom's future..
Just to clear up a few things that I wanted the reader to know by now that may have been missed in the roundabout way I went of revealing some things.
Grindelwald was indeed a Seer in his own right. It's just that Dippet and Artemisia were much more powerful in that area than he was. The Sight is meant to vary in it's strength from person to person. Think of it this way, as much as everyone dismisses Trelawney, she has made at least two predictions and is considered a Seer.
Through a blood marriage bond, Artemisia pooled her abilities with Grindelwald, allowing him to share in some of her Vision and visions.
With Artemisia's death, the pooling of powers ended. Grindelwald's Sight should have and did revert back to its earlier Trelawney like levels.
However, Minerva is what was once known as a foci. (Foci is just the plural of the word focus. Foci, however just happens to sound a lot more interesting and exotic) Dippet described it for us once as 'the unusual ability to take the powers and energies of another and before returning them, so concentrate, so direct them as to make them magnified far beyond what they normally would be.' She enabled Grindelwald to again enhance his abilities.
Now a few things have not actually been stated that boldly, but merely suggested in passing to prepare you for their later revelation. When Dippet thought it was Grindelwald who had transfigured Minerva into a cat, he made a reference to wondering why ever Grindelwald would pick a creature so likely to bite and scratch people.
Though Binns is fairly unreliable in some, well okay most, of the things he says, in a lecture he briefly mentioned the biting and scratching habits of vampires, werewolves, and some Themis. This will be expanded upon later in the story.
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Thanks for reviewing Laura Kay, Darlingdearheart, Minerva Lea, Juliet's Rose, Morocco, and Margo.
Darlingdearheart - I am very excited to see a new reviewer. I'm sorry to disappoint, but my name isn't Margo. I was just labeling who my answers were for. Hope that doesn't take away from the story for you!
Margo - Quite a bit more will be shown about the relationship between Tom & Minerva so you will get to decide for yourself in the next few chapters. All predictions made will one way or another come true. Since the only possible narrator still available for the years Minerva spent with Grindelwald will never actually offer more than a few verbal tidbits, answers about him will be hard to come by and usually only implied. Eventually you will be able to decide for yourself if he was tampering with the future or merely acting the part he was destined to play. Everything else you have asked about will be dealt with in detail at their proper time.
Juliet's Rose - Glad you are enjoying the story. Number of chapters remaining to this flashback is kind of hard to gauge at the moment. I will say that I hope to start churning out chapters a little bit more quickly and have the flashback ended if not by Christmas, than by New Year.
Laura - Your compliments always leave me blushing. I'm delighted to know the earlier chapters have more depth now when you reread them. That is exactly what I am going for. And long reviews are my favorite. They let me know you are really enjoying the story if you take that long to reply. Also it lets me know if I am throwing you too far off of the track with some of the little misdirections I put in the story.
Ch 29 - I think between this and especially the next chapter, you will have a much better idea of what influences Dippet's POV. I hope the part above cleared up the thing about Minerva's unusual ability. If not please do let me know. As for the animagus bit, well its not really considered one of the defining abilities for the Themis. Much like the ability to turn yourself invisible at will, it is something that can be learned and is not innate. Yes, that was a hint that Loki implied an untruth to Tonks in one of the early chapters.
Ch 30 - As for the picture, what can I say? Could of, would of, should of. The portrait has already made it pretty clear that no one thinks to talk to him for a very long time.
If you reread the section with Kettleburn (or a few of the other chapters) enough times, you might pick up on something that is there but that you are meant to gloss over.
I think by the end of this chapter it will be pretty clear to you she has not yet gotten over her delight at sweets, but eventually there will be a reason given.