Chapter 50
A/N Thank you Maria not only for taking the time to beta check, but for all your support and encouragement.
Granted, I do realize it is summer and the two wonderful people who review my every chapter are off line. However, when I leave a cliffhanger of Kitten setting a dragon loose in the Great Hall and it only garners three comments, its pretty clear this story has lost its luster. I am discontinuing this story.
That said, I will not be leaving this particular storyline unfinished. The next chapter, which will be the last, has been written for several months. It needs typing, a bit of tweaking, and to be beta checked, after which I will post it. The chapter doesn't have the same feel to its ending that I had in mind for the over all story, but it is the way I intended all along to end this era of the storyline and it does have a certain air of finality to it.
Once that chapter is in place, I will be making a few minor edits to the earlier chapters in order to comfortably put a 'Finis' on this saga. Personally, I hate a mystery story where only the detective is given the information to solve the case and the reader is given no opportunity to participate. Believe it or not, the answers to most, if not all, of the questions raised in this story have already been presented. The purpose of many of the long, seemingly random segments in chapters was to present all the necessary information to the reader in such a way as to not too obviously raise suspicions. The later parts of the story were simply meant to disclose in a more direct manner that which had already been revealed.
Those of you who have read and reviewed in the past, I thank you.
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Rubeus Hagrid saw he had been right; she was even more wonderful in person. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Her large black wings spread out, casting a shadow over a goodly portion of the Hall. She sent a gentle breeze toward them each time she beat her wings to stay in the air. Her head tilted up and she let out a sigh. A glorious stream of fire poured out with the breath of air.
There were House banners hanging over the tables. At first the flames seemed to be reaching out to kiss them, but soon it started to look more like dancing. All around him, people were standing, trying to get a better look. Hagrid could tell he wasn't the only one excited. Loads of different colors of light were pinging about. It was almost like one of those firework shows. Bathed in their glow, she looked so lovely, it took his breath away.
She began to swoop and glide about the room. She was a glorious sight. This was the bestest present anyone had ever given him.
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Albus Dumbledore had just finished filling his plate with an assortment of salad greens when he heard the first scream. Instinct, or perhaps experience, led him to look over at the Slytherin Table. The sumptuous greens he had been looking forward to all day forgotten, he allowed his fork to fall to the floor. No doubt it landed with a clatter, but it couldn't be heard over the room's din.
"Bad idea! Shouldn't have done that!"
Dumbledore didn't think that Professor Tofty's exclamations could even begin to cover it. Someone had conjured a Hungarian Horntail into the Great Hall. Dumbledore didn't wish to be one to jump to conclusions, but given that it appeared to be the dragon from Miss Grindelwald's painting and the girl still had her wand out, he had little to no room to doubt who was responsible.
The dragon emitted a jet of flame which set fire to some of the House banners hanging from the ceiling. Burning bits of cloth began to rain down on those below.
Most of the students were shouting and trying to make their way out of the Great Hall, but a fair number seemed too frightened to react. They just stared up at it. In the pandemonium, some that were closest to the door looked to be in danger of being trampled.
"Finite Incantatum!"
He knew even before trying that the spell would not work. Miss Grindelwald, he was sure, was more powerful than he. Far too powerful for him to be able to reverse her spell without her wanting him to. Besides, dragons were very powerful creatures in their own right. Their hides made excellent protective garments and shields for a reason; they could easily deflect or absorb magic as needed. It would take more than all his power to subdue a dragon. Perhaps a half dozen men casting in precise unison could do it, but not one man acting alone. He tried to get the other professors to work with him.
"If we all cast together on the count of three. One! Two! Three!"
Most were unable to hear him in all the excitement. Pomfrey had been seated right next to him. He heard Dumbledore's suggestion and cast with him on the count of three. However, proving useless as always, rather than cast the same spell as him, Pomfrey cast a cheering charm. When that failed to have any effect, Pomfrey joined the throng of people running toward the door.
On Dumbledore's other side, Shackleton hadn't heard him or was just too involved in his own idea to give Dumbledore's a try. He kept trying to get a Conjunctivitus spell to stick. Dumbledore thought it was just as well that that failed; a blinded Hungarian Horntail wildly thrashing about could be equally as dangerous. Across the table, Kettleburn appeared to be trying a canary transfiguration hex. The idea had merit; not much, but more than Dippet's tactic of remaining seated and holding his head in his hands.
Hungarian Horntails were notoriously well known as man eaters. Seeing this one begin circling the room, Dumbledore knew it would not be long before it began feasting on the children below.
No, it was becoming abundantly clear, the only way to get rid of the dragon was the way it had come; Miss Grindelwald. Dumbledore glanced over toward her spot at the Slytherin table. She was standing next to Hagrid, smiling up at him. Hagrid himself was wearing a most radiant smile. Naturally, Robert Binns was nowhere to be seen. No doubt, he was cowering under the table, assuming he hadn't succeeded in being first out the door.
Dumbledore couldn't see another way. Even if he tried to make his way over to her, he doubted he would be able to get there in time. Even if he did, what then? How long would it take to convince her to do away with the thing that seemed to please Hagrid so? He was absolute in his confidence that she had not done this to deliberately harm anyone. She could eventually be made to understand the dangers involved in having a dragon here, to agree to remove it, but he simply did not have the luxury of time in which to do it.
He really couldn't see another way.
Lifting his wand, even just preparing the word in his mind, Dumbledore was sickened with himself. But he could not see another way.
"Imperio!"
He held the spell for only the briefest moment. As soon as Miss Grindelwald had raised her own wand, as soon as she had spoken those same two words that had failed him several times, as soon as the light from her wand made the dragon disappear with an audible pop, he released her from the spell.
A startled look came across her face. The lower portion of her robes began to darken in a streak. He could see a small puddle forming at her feet. Her expression crumbled when she lowered her head and saw the damp spots.
Dippet was shaking his head. "Why couldn't you leave it alone? Why did you find it necessary to interfere?"
Dumbledore was certain the still seated Headmaster's comments could not possibly be directed at him, but his face flushed regardless. Dumbledore began to make his way to the spot where Kitten was standing, but Shackleton moved into his path.
The Deputy Headmaster clapped him on the back. "Good thinking, Dumbledore!"
Tofty's assessment summed up Dumbledore's feelings aptly. "Shackleton, you're an arse!"
Dippet had at last risen. Dumbledore thought he too was trying to make his way to Miss Grindelwald, but now that the room was cleared, Dumbledore could see it was Robert Binns who held the Headmaster's attention. Contrary to his earlier belief, the History of Magic professor had not fled at the first sign of trouble. He appeared to have instead collapsed.
"Master Binns, are you all right?"
To Dumbledore's mind, Binns certainly didn't look it. He was extremely pale, sweating profusely and had one hand clutched to his chest. "A dragon! Did you see it! A dragon! Here in the Great Hall!"
"Mr. Hagrid, collect Madame Griselda. Bring her here at once!"
"Aye, sir."
After Hagrid's departure, Dumbledore turned around to look for Kitten. He couldn't see her anywhere.
"Master Dumbledore, your assistance."
Dumbledore ignored Dippet's voice. He needed to find her. No doubt she was frightened and confused.
"Master Dumbledore, your assistance!"
Binns looked to be frightened and confused as well, not to mention in a great deal of pain. But for the moment, that couldn't be his concern. "I'll get Kettleburn to help you." Dumbledore turned to look for him, but he could see that wouldn't work; Kettleburn was occupied with one of the students who had been burned by the falling banners. "Or Tofty." Tofty was busy too. He was attempting to levitate to the Hospital wing two first years who had been injured in the crush to get to the door. Still Dumbledore had other concerns. "Did you see where Miss Grindelwald went?"
"Mr. Riddle took her, now your assistance please!"
"I need to find her!"
"What you need to do is help me to look after Master Binns. You, of course, realize what will become of the girl should he die."
"I need to-"
"Leave her alone, Albus. I dare say you have done more than enough already. Mr. Riddle will look after her."
He was about to leave to look for her anyway, but Binns' words and the lack of focus in his eyes caught Dumbledore's attention.
"I can see the veil! Armando, I can see it parting!"
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From her cubicle, Myrtle could hear all the commotion going on in the Great Hall. It sounded like a party. Had they started the leaving Feast a week early? And of course, no one had thought to invite her. No one cared about miserable, moping Myrtle. No one wanted her around. Olive Hornsby certainly hadn't.
Myrtle could hear voices coming. They both sounded distraught, but at first they didn't seem to be having the same conversation.
"My robes are wet."
"Dumbledore shouldn't have done that! He should never have done that!"
"I never wet myself."
"It's all right, Kitten. I'm going to take you someplace safe. Someplace where Dumbledore can never get at you again."
"Even at night, I never have accidents in my bed."
"I've found a way that you and I can be together forever. No one will be able to come between us again. Not Dumbledore, not Hagrid, not anyone."
"I always wake up if I have to use the bathroom. I feel icky. You should not be carrying me, you will get icky too."
"It's all right, Kitten. I don't care about that, but if you want we can get you cleaned up before we go. The bathroom is right here."
The voices were right outside the door. The girl's became more agitated.
"No! Not Myrtle's bathroom!"
"Kitten, it's just a bathroom!"
"I do not like Myrtle!"
"Kitten, listen to me-"
Myrtle recognized that voice, it belonged to Tom Riddle. She used to have a crush on him. His third year, she had made plans to meet him at a tea shop in Hogsmeade. She had waited all day for him, but he had never showed. Just before curfew, when she was walking back to Hogwarts all alone, she had seen him with a group of his Slytherin friends. When she asked if he had forgotten their plans, he had laughed in her face. He called her a mudblood and he and all his friends had begun to chase her and throw mud at her. By the time she made it back to the castle, her glasses were caked with mud and her best robes were ruined.
"-Myrtle's dead. She can't hurt you, she can't do anything to you."
As soon as Tom opened the door, Myrtle ripped into him. "Get out! This bathroom is mine!" Myrtle saw the girl with him cringe as she got closer. "Go on Tom! Leave! And take the little bed wetter with you!"
Myrtle laughed watching the girl hold tightly onto Tom, digging her nails into his neck. She hoped it hurt a lot.
"I do not want to be here!" The girl seemed to be getting quite hysterical. "I do not like ghosts! Make her leave!"
That made Myrtle angry. She couldn't help it if she was a ghost.
"Kitten, we need to go inside. I promise you, we will only be in there a minute. We just need to use the sink."
The girl's shrieking was beginning to sound almost inhuman. "I want to leave!"
No one ever wanted to stay and visit with Myrtle. "Then go! The both of you!"
Wanting to seem very menacing, Myrtle feigned running her hands into the girl. That worked. With the girl sobbing into his shoulder, Tom finally gave up on trying to take her into the bathroom.
"It's okay, Kitten. We won't go there. I'll take you to my rooms."
Heading down the nearby stairs, Tom called back from over his shoulder. "I'm so very glad that it was you who was killed Myrtle!"
Miffed at his parting shot, but still quite pleased with herself, Myrtle hurtled herself back down the U-bend.
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"I can see the veil! Armando, I can see it! It's parting!"
Armando Dippet shook his head and wished the school nurse would hurry. "Robert, you are not to go near the veil. Do you hear me!"
"The other side, it looks so wonderful!"
Around the room there were various injuries, but they appeared to be mostly minor; a few students with burns, some of the slower stampede participants had what appeared to be a broken limb or two, but mostly they just looked battered. Dippet still hung onto the hope that when the news reached the Ministry, he could get the matter dismissed as a gross exaggeration. However, if Binns were to die, if there were an actual fatality, there could be no hope of downplaying the evening's events.
"Do not go through the veil! Do you understand me, Robert? Do not go through the veil!"
"But it is so lovely. I want to go."
"It is not your time yet, Robert." It couldn't be. Not all of Dippet's efforts had been in vain. Yes, Binns had been supposed to die, Dippet had seen that long ago. But since then, Dippet had succeeded in his efforts to create a new future for Binns. He had seen a future in which Binns was still teaching for years to come. "You cannot go yet, Robert!"
Master Dumbledore was at his side, working his wand. The young man shook his head. "Armando, you need to let him go."
Looking at Binns, Dippet more than knew that the words were true, but he refused to give up. "Stay back from the veil, Robert! You mustn't go near it!"
Madame Griselda at last arrived, but she too could offer no hope. The shock, or perhaps all the bacon and the mashed potatoes, and the - well at any rate, it had been too much. Seeing the light leave his History of Magic Master's eyes, Dippet didn't believe it possible for the situation to get any worse. He cursed the man one last time. "Damn it, Robert! I said not to go through the veil. You never could listen-"
"Oh stop it, Armando." Madame Griselda had tears in her eyes as she ran her hand over Binns' eyes, closing them. "He's dead now. He can't hear you."
"Who's dead? Is it Shackleton? Step aside! Let me look! Oh, I hope it is Shackleton!"
Turning along with everyone else at the sound of that incredibly familiar voice, Dippet realized for the first, but not the last time that evening, that things could indeed become worse.
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He despised this place and all the memories that it held. His short interval away made his banishment back all the more cruel. The door opened. As he listened to the young man's gentle and reassuring tone, trying to coax someone else into the room, what he wouldn't give to be elsewhere!
Looking over against his better judgment, he was startled to see it was the young girl that accompanied him. The girl seemed unsettled. Her face was damp and she clung desperately to the young man. Stroking her hair, he tried to soothe her.
"Let's get you in the bath. Would you like that?"
At the girl's nod, the young man carried her into the adjoining room. No longer able to move from frame to frame, his view was somewhat limited. Still, with the door left open, he did have an adequate view.
The young man turned on any tap that would produce bubbles. He left on the girl's robes, but transfigured them back into a nightdress before settling her into the water. The young man seemed almost tender as he helped to scrub the girl with no thought to getting himself wet. Once she was clean and calmed, the young man stepped back.
"I need you to stay here for a minute. Don't worry, I'll be right back."
The young man carefully closed the door after returning to the bedroom. Seeing the young man shed his clothing, the room's other occupant was filled with a very familiar sense of dread. Though the feeling didn't stop entirely, it lessened as the young man cast a cleansing charm on himself and redressed in a fresh set of robes. The feeling returned full force watching the young man collect his diary, a dagger, and a basin from his desk. He brought the items to the bed, but folded the coverlet over to conceal the knife's presence. The young man conjured a wide circle of candles around the bed.
Leaving the items on the bed, he returned to the other room to retrieve the girl. Helping her out of the bath, he toweled her off as best he could before casting upon her a drying spell to finish the work. Again lifting her up, he carried her to the bed. As the young man set about brushing out her still drying hair, the girl looked decidedly more like her old self. Her attempts to snuggle closer to the young man made it near to impossible for him to finish her hair.
She hadn't caught sight of the dagger yet.
The young man shifted her away so he could look at her as they talked. "Kitten, we need to talk about the future, about what we are going to do next."
Both of them were sitting on the bed, facing each other. The young man's back was to the fireplace. The girl's face was only partially visible over his shoulder. At his words, her expression fell.
"I do not want to go to classes tomorrow. Everyone is going to laugh at me because I wet myself."
He couldn't see the young man's face, but by the tone of his voice, he could surmise that it had darkened. "That was Dumbledore's doing and he will be made to pay for that. No one is going to laugh at you, Kitten. I promise you, no one is ever going to laugh at you, I will see to that. But never mind that right now. This is very important, Kitten. I need you to tell me something. I have a way that you and I can be together always. We won't ever have to worry about anyone trying to separate us again. Tell me, Kitten, would you like that? To be with your Tom always?"
The girl's head moved in a nod. The young man leaned forward and kissed her chastely.
"I want you to close your eyes, Kitten. Don't be frightened."
After the girl's eyes closed, the young man reached for the knife.
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I'm not dead! Stop saying that!" Even as a has-been, Binns retained his ability to pout.
Pointing to the corporal Binns slumped on the floor, Madame Griselda begged to disagree. "But you are dead! Look!"
"I demand a second opinion!"
Armando Dippet ran his hands through what little hair he had left. Looking back and forth between the two Binnses, he tried to think of a way out. "Madame Griselda, is there nothing you can do?"
The aged woman shook her head. "He's dead. He's not partially dead, or almost dead, or nearly dead. He's dead dead."
"I'm not dead, you nitwit! If I were dead, I couldn't very well be here talking to you now could I?"
Madame Griselda's tears were a thing of the past. Any feelings of sympathy or empathy for her fallen colleague were also long forgotten. "You are a ghost, you dunderhead!"
Binns went, if possible, beyond ghostly pale as he stuttered. "Ghost? Where? Keep it away! Oh, I can't stand those things!"
Madame Griselda gave up. It was Dumbledore who repeated her words very slowly. "Robert, you - are - a -ghost."
"No, stop saying that! All of you, stop saying that! I am not a ghost, you are!"
For a moment, no one spoke. It was the silence that convinced Binns. He looked so forlorn as he began to moan. "This isn't fair! I didn't want to be a ghost! Lazy do nothings, all of them!"
No, Dippet knew this was a path that Robert never would have chosen for himself. But it was too late now; on his orders Robert Binns had failed to cross over the veil before it had closed. He was trapped here now, to ever wander this side of the veil.
What folly of his it had been to endeavor to change the future. He of all people knew better; the Fates did not tolerate such things. But without regard, he had tried and indeed he had succeed in changing the future…just not for the better. But that was a matter for another time. For now…
Dippet began to question Madame Griselda. "Master Binns, his body is unmarked, is it not? No bites or claw marks to indicate Miss Grindelwald's dragon as a factor?"
"No, none. He had a coronary."
At Madame Griselda's confirmation, Dippet began to formulate a plan. "Master Kettleburn, relocate Master Binns to the Faculty room. Try to make it look like an accident."
Master Kettleburn smiled, but there was no mirth in it. "He died of a heart attack, but you want me to try to make it look like an accident? Should I lower him out a window? Or put a Red Cap in the room with him?"
"Be sensible! Just make it look natural! Like he fell asleep in a chair or something!"
Master Kettleburn gave up arguing and levitated the formerly Master Binns out of the room. The new incarnation of Master Binns was right behind.
"You bring me back here right now! I don't want to be a ghost!"
With that not exactly taken care of, but out of the way, Dippet began to relax. There was still hope of keeping the situation in hand. He held onto that thought right up until Minister Augustus spoke from behind him.
"Would someone care to tell me why it is that the Ministry just received over a dozen reports from concerned parents about a dragon being let lose in Hogwarts? And perhaps, when you are done with that, you could explain why when entering we saw one of your professors levitating the corpse of another professor up a staircase?"
The Minister was flanked on either side by the young auror, Mister Moody, and Madame Bagnold, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Visible behind them were nearly a dozen assorted aurors and hit wizards.
Not having a response at the ready for the Minister, Dippet found the blood curdling screams that started something of a welcome distraction….at least until he discovered the cause.
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The girl had her eyes closed and her face remained impassive. He couldn't see exactly what it was that the young man was doing, but by the pained hiss that came from the young man, he suspected the young man must have used the blade on himself and not on the girl as he had feared he would do. This suspicion was confirmed when the young man reached for the basin with the hand not holding the dagger. A deep gash was visible on his wrist. The basin was moved to between the two and out of his view. Still the soft pitter pattering sound of the blood droplets hitting the metal told him it was there.
"What is that noise?"
"Hush, Kitten. Just keep your eyes closed."
Spending his entire existence being shuffled around from room to room within the castle, he wasn't very experienced in these things. It wasn't until the young man opened his diary and began chanting an incantation from it that he realized how it was the young man planned to keep the girl with him always. He was trying to perform a blood marriage bonding ritual.
He didn't have much knowledge of such marriage bondings. Given the wretched limitations of his existence, the need of such knowledge and the opportunity to gain it had never before presented itself. What he did know was that a blood marriage bonding could only be ended by death. Unlike a non-blood bonding, which could be ended by either of the parties entering into a new marriage bonding, blood marriages were irreversible. An attempt by a blood married person to enter into a new bonding, blood or non-blood, whilst the person they were already bonded to was still living would prove fatal, in an excruciatingly painful way, for the one twice bonded.
With his part of the incantation complete, the young man began to coach the girl through the difficult pronunciation of her part. He wished that he could see exactly what was going on, but his view was obstructed by the young man's back. He could still see the girl's face over the young man's shoulder, but at the young man's command, her eyes remained closed. He had only the young man's words to go by to know what was gong on.
"This will hurt, but only for a minute and then it will be over and no one will ever be able to separate us again."
He couldn't see what the young man did next, but he heard the girl's small cry of shock. The girl opened her eyes and the smallness of her last cry became very clear as much louder, she began to scream. And scream. And scream.
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"Kitten!"
Using the continuing screams as a guiding beacon, Albus Dumbledore led the pack of Ministry people and aurors on the way down into the dungeons. Throwing open the door to the Slytherin Head Boy's room, Dumbledore didn't know what to expect. Still, if the events of the past few days, weeks even, had taught him nothing else, it had taught him to always be prepared with a wand at the ready.
"You bastard! What did you do to her!"
It was such a muggleborn reaction; rather than use his wand, Tom Riddle came running at him armed with a knife. Dumbledore remained exceedingly calm. Before Tom had even made it halfway across the room, Dumbledore cast a petrifying spell to stop his progress. Acting in a fury Tom failed to even attempt to block the spell.
Dumbledore recognized the shocked voice speaking from behind him as belonging to Alastor Moody. "That boy tried to kill you!"
Given the still continuing screams, Dumbledore was more concerned with checking on what Tom had succeeded in doing to Miss Grindelwald with the dagger. Moving past Tom's petrified form on the floor, Dumbledore recognized the paraphernalia on the bed. Had Tom tried to force himself on the girl?
In his haste to get to Miss Grindelwald, he paid no attention to the basin as he knocked it over or the unusual color of its contents as they spilled onto a book lying on the bed. He checked her over and finding no wounds, he gave a sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin, he didn't finish the ritual!"
His words and his relief did nothing to calm Miss Grindelwald or stop her screams.
"Bloody hell, that's annoying. Someone make her stop! Use a 'silenco' if you have to."
"Always a charmer, Augustus!" Millicent Bagnold broke forward from the gaggle. "It's all right, dear. He can't hurt you now."
Millicent's efforts weren't working either. Kitten was finally startled into quieting down when the door to Tom's room was torn off its hinges by a panicked Hagrid.
"What's goin' on? I thought ah heard Kitten cryin'. There yeh are! Are yeh alright?"
Kitten wrapped her arms securely around Hagrid's neck, but said nothing. It was the Minster who spoke first to Hagrid and then the others in the room.
"Good heavens boy! What have they been feeding you? Make yourself useful and bring her up to Dippet's office. The Dementors have already been sent for; they should be meeting us there soon. This time, I intend to escort her to Azkaban personally. Oh, and someone bring the boy. Millicent, you are the law expert, but I dare say that was an attempted murder we just saw."
At the Minister's words, Dumbledore began to argue. He wasn't the only one. The room broke out into pandemonium.
"-It was an accident. It was only an accident."
"-Augustus, I will not sign off on sending a child to Azkaban."
"-Take the girl if you insist, but not Mr. Riddle."
"-Azkaban! Yeh canna take her there! I'll na let yeh!"
It was only the arrival of Sir Cadogan and his announcement that managed to return silence to the room. "Professor Dumbledore, it's a bit early for the evening report, but I thought you might like to know; Muggles have begun storming the castle."
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After what happened to Master Binns, Armando Dippet couldn't possibly have conceived of things getting any worse. Yet coming here and finding the two of them like that…how had it come to this?
And now to top it all off, the castle was under siege.
Shackleton scoffed at the idea. "Muggles? I find that unlikely. This castle has very strong muggle repelling charms in place."
Master Dumbledore had a suspicious look in his eyes as he regarded the portrait that had just made the startling and very dramatic announcement. "Sir Cadogan, muggles are storming the castle? Exactly how many muggles?"
"Hordes!"
"Hordes?"
"Er, well, eh hem," The portrait stalled for a bit before answering. "Two. They are wandering the front hall as we speak."
Shackleton still didn't believe him. "What would muggles be doing here?"
"They have a list of demands!" The portrait gave a dramatic pause. He continued only at Master Dumbledore's prompting. "They are demanding we turn over all of our cats to them!"
"Whatever for?" Dippet inquired.
That seemed to have exhausted the paintings very limited knowledge.
"Master Shackleton, go get rid of them. Master Dumbledore go assist him in getting rid of them."
Surprise, surprise. Master Dumbledore began to refuse. The man listened about as well as the girl ever had. "I prefer to stay. Minister, there are things I feel I can best explain."
"That won't be necessary, Professor. I've already heard all the explaining I care to hear. The Dementors will be here momentarily. Millicent, Moody bring those two and come with me. The rest of you, go check the castle for any more accidents."
Dippet was no more pleased by the situation than was Master Dumbledore. "We can continue this discussion in my office."
From the corner of his eye, Dippet noticed Madame Bagnold with her hand on Dumbledore's shoulder, saying something to him. He couldn't hear what exactly was said, but whatever it was worked. Dumbledore, though only reluctantly, relented and followed after Shackleton.
Allowed to travel in the company of Mr. Hagrid and no doubt wholly unaware of the future that awaited her, Miss Grindelwald offered no resistance on the journey. Mr. Riddle was unpetrified and allowed to make the journey under his own volition. Mr. Moody seemed to be at a bit of a loss given the recent events. Still the auror kept a close watch on both prisoners.
Upon reaching his office, Madame Bagnold pulled the Minister aside and began arguing with him fiercely. "Augustus, I agree this is not the place for her, but there has got to be a third option. I will not sign an order of removal to Azkaban."
The Minister did not appear to be in a mind to discuss the situation with his underling. "You will sign it or you will sign a letter of resignation!"
Mr. Hagrid set Miss Grindelwald in a chair and began to plead his case. "Yeh canna take Kitten tah Azkaban! Sir, yeh dinna understand. She dinna mean any harm. She was jus' tryin' tah do somethin' special fer meh fer a surprise-"
"Hagrid's right! It wasn't Kitten's fault; it was all his doing! Take him instead! You know, he's killed before!" Mr. Riddle turned to him for corroboration. "Isn't that so, Headmaster Dippet?"
Dippet remained silent as he stared at the boy. Mr. Riddle's blue eyes flashed dangerously as he demanded Dippet once again act the part of an abettor in his misdeeds.
Dippet turned his back on Mr. Riddle as the boy renewed his efforts to place the blame upon Mr. Hagrid. "Hagrid killed Myrtle, but you covered it up for him. You told everyone it was an accident, but it wasn't! Tell him!"
Madame Bagnold looked interested at the outburst, but the Minister was not amused. "Boy, I don't have the first idea what it is you are talking about and what's more, I don't care. After what we just saw you try to do, do you think anyone is going to take your babblings seri-Good they are here!"
Dippet turned to see Minister Augustus was indeed correct. The Dementors of Azkaban had arrived. He found it odd; he would have thought those present would have experienced the approach of the two soul devourers before they actually came into view. However, it seemed the Dementors were being remarkably well behaved. It was then that Armando Dippet first began to understand the extent to which they could control the effect that they had upon people; the fact that it was a conscious and controllable choice for them. The room was filled with misery and despair, but no more than it had been when they entered. It was, he assumed, an attempt to forestall alarming the girl until they were already enroute to Azkaban.
Azkaban.
In the end, despite all his efforts it would seem she was destined to go there. He knew, he had always known, it was where she truly belonged. And yet, watching her…
The Minister saw no reason to delay. "The girl will come straight with us. Millicent, you can take the boy to the Ministry and process him through the regular channels."
When the Minister motioned Miss Grindelwald forward, toward the open door, for what might very well have been the first and only time ever in her life, she complied without arguing. However at the door she paused and held out her hand.
"I have to hold someone's hand at all times when I go outside. Professor Dumbledore said that is the new rule."
Mr. Moody and Madame Bagnold both looked aghast, he assumed at the concept that someone being sent to Azkaban would be so young as to require that kind of handholding.
Mr. Hagrid looked beside himself. "Let meh take 'er out."
"You can't do this. You can't take her there! What about Dumbledore? He used an Unforgivable Curse on her. Why aren't you taking him to Azkaban? At least let me go with her!"
Madame Bagnold spoke up. "Augustus, there has to be someplace else for her!"
The Minister stared at the girl's outstretched hand, revolted to find it near him. "Tell me, Millicent, would you take her home? Expose your children to her?"
Madame Bagnold stayed silent.
"I thought not." Ignoring Mr. Hagrid's offer and Mr. Riddle's outburst, the Minister beckoned one of the Dementors to approach the girl instead.
Dippet knew Azkaban was the place for her. He knew, he had always known, and yet seeing the delicate white fingers of her too small hand solemnly wrap round that rotting flesh…
"Wait."
Dippet opened the topmost drawer of his desk. He fingered the vial of poison there. It would be painless. Merciful and quick. Words that could not be used to describe her new life with the Dementors. He actually pressed his flesh against the well marked bottle. But he could not bring himself to do it. Despite knowing all that he knew was to come, even knowing it would not be murder on his part, merely a preemptive strike that would save the lives of countless others, he could not bring himself to do it.
He had delayed too long. The Minister was looking at him inquiringly. "Wait, what?"
Dippet moved his fingers to the vial next to it, to one of his stock of dreamless sleep potion. "I just thought a sleep potion would help for the journey."
The Minister came round his desk to stand next to him and inspect the vial. "Go on then, give it to her."
It would perhaps make for an even greater shock for the girl, to fall asleep here in his office only to awaken in her cell in the fortress of Azkaban. But no doubt for the Minister and the others, it would make the transport far less cumbersome.
Imbecile that he was, Dippet held out the vial towards her.
The girl raised an eyebrow. Her spirits seemed to have a revival as she no doubt thought they were again playing what Dumbledore had informed him was her most favorite game. "You cannot get me to drink that!"
Dippet sighed in frustration. "Just drink it. It is only a sleep potion."
Miss Grindelwald wore something near to a smile as she shook her head. "I do not like potions."
Dippet was near to screaming with frustration. "Will you please for once just do as you are told!"
Dippet was surprised to hear the Minister of all people join in, almost in defense of the girl. "Stop badgering the child, Armando. If she doesn't want to drink it, she doesn't have to."
Dippet saw the glass of water in the Minister's hand as he came out from behind Dippet's own desk. He saw the glass and the gleam in the Minister's eye. Dippet thought he knew what was going on.
The Minister spoke to Miss Grindelwald in a sickly sweet tone suspiciously unlike any he had previously used toward her. The Minister greatly underestimated the girl's intelligence. "She doesn't have to take the potion…but she should have a drink before we leave. The trip will be a long one and there won't be anything to drink along the way."
The Minister offered out the glass to her. Still with an eyebrow raised, Miss Grindelwald answered him back in an equally deceptively sweet voice. "If there won't be anything to drink along the way…why do you not have some too?"
The Minister blinked. "You are a clever one , aren't you." After summoning a second glass of water, the Minister made certain to still hand her the first. "Drink up!"
Both drank from their respective glasses at the same time. Dippet had played this game with Miss Grindelwald far too many times. He was not so foolish as to miss what was going on. It was simply that he believed that even were Miss Grindelwald awake, the journey would still be easier for the others going with at least the Minister asleep. He has assumed that the Minister added to the glass one of the other vials of sleeping draught.
Lowering the glass from her lips, Miss Grindelwald began to cackle. "I tricked you! Night-night!"
The Minister's glass shattered against the floor. Dippet no doubt expected the Minister to be angry, but the ferocity of the Minister's response startled him.
"You murdering little-" The Minister lunged at the still laughing child. Miss Grindelwald's screaming began again, but was cut off as the Minister of Magic squeezed his hands around her throat.
Looking back at his still open drawer, Dippet saw an empty space where the other potion had been.
The Minister's response had been entirely unexpected. It took a moment for the others to begin to move to intercede. By then, there was no need. The potion had indeed been fast acting.
Minister Augustus lost his grip on the girl and his lifeless form slumped to the floor. Miss Grindelwald again began her screams. Unlike the previous times, this time there were words discernable.
"I want my Da!"
Mr. Moody moved toward her to examine the Minister's prone form. "He's dead! Merlin, she killed him!"
Repeating her words, the girl was clearly beyond reason. There was a tension rising in the room. At first Dippet failed to realize it for what it was. He was too busy attempting to explain the situation to the young auror.
"She switched the contents of the glasses, Mr. Moody. Check the Minister's pockets, I believe you will find the vial somewhere upon his person. She only switched the contents of the glasses!"
"I want my Da!"
Mr. Moody wasn't listening or if he was, he wasn't comprehending. "Merlin, she killed him. She killed him and she laughed while doing it!"
Mr. Riddle tried to quiet her, but she shrieked all the more at his approach. Finally Mr. Riddle relented and allowed Mr. Hagrid's efforts to comfort her. Mr. Hagrid's success was limited to getting her to revert back to the volume and frequency previous to Mr. Riddle's attempts.
Madame Bagnold tried to gain if not control of the situation, at least understanding. "You think Augustus tried to poison the girl?"
Dippet nodded. "There was a vial in my desk drawer. It is gone now."
Madame Bagnold pulled at the collar of her robes. "My Gods, I saw him take something from your desk. He must have thought it was another sleep potion. Why is it so hot in here?"
"The vial was clearly labeled."
Madame Bagnold began to cough, but she was successful at locating the vial. "My Gods - you - think he did it deliberately?"
"I want my Da!"
Dippet tried to respond. He tried but he found it very difficult to speak. As Mr. Moody struggled with words as well, Dippet belatedly realized what was going on.
"She's - doing - it! But what - is she-"
Still repeating her untenable request, the girl was clearly beyond reason. In her hysteria, she was wandlessly…she was wandlessly doing something. Summoning what energy he had left, Dippet groped around the top of his desk. Finding the letter opener that he kept there, he lurched towards the girl. He plunged the metal opener through her nightdress and into the flesh of her shoulder.
The girl's other wandless activities ceased as the protective enchantment upon her diverted all of her magical energies toward trying to heal the wound.
It was the well kept secret of the line of Themis. It was the way to render them no more powerful than any other wandless witch or wizard. Less powerful even , for even the most ordinary witches and wizards could be expected to perform startling feats of wandless magic in times of great distress. Themises however could not. For as long as the wound remained, the girl's body could do nothing with its magic, but try to mend itself and the wound could not heal properly until the obstruction was removed.
Her shrieks had also come to an end. Even when he removed the letter opener, she made no sound. As soon as the obstruction was removed her wound healed over. She allowed a very distraught Mr. Hagrid to gather her up in his arms with no outward reaction. To Mr. Hagrid's repeated inquiries into her condition, she gave no response.
While Dippet had expected his actions to temporarily bring about an end to her wandless activities, her prolonged silence was not an effect he had anticipated. In fact, he was beginning to find it somewhat alarming.
#######################################################################
Albus Dumbledore stood with Shackleton observing the pair of muggles standing in the main hall. The man looked completely disheveled and was mumbling almost incoherently to himself. Several times he walked into the closed castle doors in an attempt to get out.
"Must be going now. Really. A very important appointment. Can't be late. Already late. Must be late going."
The gentleman's conduct was fairly standard for a muggle who managed to wander too close to anti-muggle wards.
His female companion didn't seem to be as affected. While the male looked confused, she looked determined. As he again tried walking into the door, she used one hand to pull him away. She was carrying a cat in her other hand. The cat looked incredibly familiar. It took Dumbledore a minute to realize it was the missing familiar of one of the girls in his N.E.W.T. level class.
The woman noticed his presence. Her eyes locked with his and narrowed. Her voice had a heavy Scottish accent. "This isn't my kitten!"
Dumbledore watched the woman gently lower the cat to the ground. It immediately set off to find its real owner.
"I want my kitten!"
Her words sparked some kind of recognition for Shackleton. He opened a…dialogue with her. "Bloody hell! You're that damn McGonagall woman! The one who keeps writing me letters."
"I want my kitten!"
"Well you can't have it. Now move along."
"I want my kitten!"
"How did you know where the castle was? Never mind, that was a thoughtless question. How did you find your way back here by yourself?"
Dumbledore had to agree, that was a thoughtless question. Getting Wizarding families to send their children away to Hogwarts for schooling was hard enough to do. It was folly to think that muggles would allow their children to come to Hogwarts at the invitation of a complete stranger without themselves ever having seen or heard of the place. For the parents of a muggle child, the professor who arrived to deliver an enrollment letter also came carrying an invitation to a tour of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Even so, the anti-muggle wards were put back in place immediately afterwards and should have kept them from finding the location again. Dumbledore too would have been interested in learning how it was the couple managed to make it to the castle again, but Mrs. McGonagall seemed stuck on just one thought.
"I want my kitten!"
The man who Dumbledore had never met, but presumed to be Mr. McGonagall, was still babbling.
The Deputy Headmaster walked around the woman, examining her, and tried to get a handle on the situation. "Don't you feel like you have something else to be doing? Someplace else to be? Something very important that you have forgotten?"
"Yes…I…" The woman's brow furrowed in confusion before resettling into her former determined look. "My kitten is very important to me. I need to find her. She needs me."
Sighing, Shackleton directed his wand at the woman. "Oh to hell with this. Let's just wipe their memories, dump them in muggle London, and be done with it! Obliv-"
The woman grabbed his wand and snapped it in two. "Give me my kitten!"
"That wand was brand new! It still had wand box smell!"
"I want my kitten!"
Seeing that the two of them were about ready to start with the fisticuffs and Mr. McGonagall's head was beginning to bleed from again bumping into the door, Dumbledore thought it best to intercede.
"Mrs. McGonagall, Mr. McGonagall, please. Returning your cat to you, I'm afraid that isn't something we could possibly do. Perhaps we should go to my office. We can sit down and I can explain."
After leading them to his office and going through his explanation twice, Dumbledore listened to Mrs. McGonagall reiterate his words.
"So let me see if I have this correct. You cannot return my kitten to me because my kitten isn't really a kitten. She is a little girl who 'magically' took the form of a cat to avoid being noticed while her father was arrested for murder and has now herself been arrested for murder."
Dumbledore nodded. "Exactly."
Rather than look understanding, the woman looked highly annoyed with him. "Do you really expect me to believe that?" Her determination was turning into something far darker. "I would have been much more likely to believe it if you had tried it when I first wrote requesting my cat back. Instead you mailed to me a full grown cat that looked nothing at all like my kitten and a note explaining that she, now a he by the way, had been in an unfortunate potions accident. Since then you have ignored all my letters - Sit back down!"
She looked so absolutely furious, Dumbledore found himself almost involuntarily doing as he was told.
The woman frowned at him. "Not you! Him!"
Dumbledore was deeply embarrassed to discover the last part of the woman's diatribe had been directed not at him, but at her own husband. While she had been talking, Mr. McGonagall had stood up and started for the door. It took only one look at his wife for him to forget about the wards and comply as well.
Dumbledore tried to regain a foothold in the conversation and clear up a bit of a misconception on the lady's part. "I personally have mailed you no cats and I've never seen any of these letters."
He looked to Shackleton, hoping for some input. "Blasted muggles! Curse you all when I get my wand working!" The Deputy Headmaster was still otherwise occupied with his wand pieces and a roll of tape.
The woman crossed her arms. "Then you can go bring me my kitten right now. And I'm warning you, no funny business. I would recognize my kitten anywhere. Try passing off another of your poor imitations and I'll come back with a bobby!"
"Which one?"
The woman repeated his same words back to him. "Which one?"
Dumbledore tried rephrasing his question. "Which Bobby? Sadly, I must say Professor Robert Binns is no longer with us."
"Sadly? That's a matter of opinion." Shackleton appeared to not be entirely ignoring the conversation.
"The police! If you don't bring me my kitten right now, I will return with the police and have you arrested for theft or kidnapping or what have you! I have her papers with me right here! I assure you they are all in order!"
The woman removed some pages from her hand purse. She waved them at him, but Dumbledore didn't even get a chance to look at them. Always ever oh so helpful, Shackleton chose that moment to rejoin the conversation.
"Muggle police can't arrest us. We're wizards. Our laws don't apply to you and your laws don't apply to us. Separation of Wizarding and muggle communities. Besides, for breaking my wand, instead of giving your cat back, I'm going to give her to the house elves to make a stew-"
"Shackleton!" Dumbledore couldn't believe his colleague's behavior. All Dumbledore could think about right now was getting upstairs to Dippet's office to find out what was going on with Miss Grindelwald. The girl's experiences this evening, both those at his hands and those at Riddle's, had been nothing short of traumatic. He had Millicent Bagnold's assurances that a child wasn't going to be sent to Azkaban so long as she was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but given Minister Augustus' attitude, her assurances weren't reassuring enough. Dumbledore wanted nothing more than to be upstairs and here he was stuck with Shackleton playing games. "I apologize for my colleague."
"They are just muggles! Obliviate them and set them on their way!"
"I want my kitten!"
Dumbledore wondered if it was the anti-muggle wards or if the woman was always this single-minded in all her pursuits. "Your kitten isn't a kitten anymore!"
The woman paused and a look of uncertainty crossed her face. For a moment Dumbledore almost believed he had succeeded in getting through to her.
"I want my cat!"
Dumbledore sighed. How to get through to this woman? How to get her to understand? How to possibly make her see - that was it! He had to take her to see. He would bring her to Dippet's office and show her. It would also be an opportunity for him to find out what was happening with Miss Grindelwald.
Leaving Shackleton to continue wrestling with the Spell-O-Tape, Dumbledore led the McGonagalls up to the Headmaster's office. He held open the door to allow the lady to pass before him.
Mrs. McGonagall didn't even manage to properly get over the threshold before a blur of white nightdress and black hair hurtled itself into her arms. Had Dumbledore not been there to brace her, the woman surely would have been knocked back down the stone staircase.
The woman was startled to find herself the recipient of such a zealous response. She tried to pry the girl's fingers from around her neck. "Who? What are you doing?"
Not having any of it, Miss Grindelwald held on as if her very life depended on it. She seemed almost to be trying to burrow inside of the woman.
"Kitten, that there's yer mum, isn't it?"
Hagrid's words had no effect on Kitten, but they put an immediate end to Mrs. McGonagall's struggles. Her hands moved to gently brush away the cloud of hair obscuring the girl's face.
"Kitten?" she tentatively asked, turning her head down to look into the troubled gray eyes. She stroked the girl's cheek, now free of hair. "You are my little kitten, aren't you?"
Kitten's only response was to nestle her head in the crook of the woman's neck.
"Can she speak?"
Perhaps a better question would have been could anyone speak, because no one in the room even attempted to answer. It was only then, looking around at the others, that Dumbledore noticed the Minister on the floor. By the woman's gasp, Dumbledore thought it safe to assume she too had noticed.
Dumbledore looked to those who had been in the room before him. "What happened?"
"She happened! She killed him!"
At Moody's shouted words, the McGonagall woman shook her head and held her arms tightly around the girl.
Dippet spoke in a calmer voice. "He put poison in her glass, but she switched it."
The woman again tried to separate herself from Kitten, if only slightly, so that she might examine her. She gave up with a sharp cry when refusing to let go, like a cat with its claws, Miss Grindelwald began to dig her nails into the woman's flesh. Still, the woman had gotten enough of a look to notice the presence of a large spot of still damp blood on the girl's nightdress. "Good Lord, what did they do to you?"
Moody was outraged. "What did we do to her? She tried to kill us – all of us!"
With Kitten gathered awkwardly in her arms, Mrs. McGonagall turned to her husband who had been wandering the room, pinging off the walls like a muggle pinball. "We're leaving."
"Yes," the man agreed readily. "Must be gone getting."
Seeing the way the girl clung so desperately to the woman, Millicent Bagnold spoke regretfully. "You two may leave, but the girl needs to come with me. A man – two men are dead. There will need to be an inquest. Merlin knows, I was here for part of it and even I am not certain of exactly what happened."
The muggle woman didn't seem to understand. Or she just didn't care. "I am taking my Kitten home with me now."
"I'm afraid you can't do that. We wizards have laws-"
Mrs. McGonagall interrupted Bagnold. "We have laws too! Laws that dictate how you can and cannot treat a child!"
Bagnold went somewhat crimson. "We have laws like that too." She tried a different tactic. "She isn't yours to take."
"She most certainly is!" Managing to keep her very oversized Kitten held up with one hand only because of the girl's death grip on her, the angry Scotswoman again produced Kitten's paperwork for Millicent Bagnold. "These are her papers. I assure you, they are all in order."
Dumbledore shook his head. Perhaps bringing the McGonagalls here had not been a good idea. Certainly it seemed that recovering Kitten from them was going to prove to be another agonizing ordeal for the girl. "Mrs. McGonagall, you can purchase a cat in a pet stop, but you cannot buy a little girl."
Millicent had taken the papers from Mrs. McGonagall and was staring down at them. "She didn't buy her at a pet store. These…these say…adoption papers." She held it out to Dumbledore, her finger still pointing at the heading of the page.
Mrs. McGonagall confirmed it. "I don't like pet stores. We went to an animal shelter. You don't 'buy' the animals there, you just pay an 'adoption' fee to cover the expense of spaying or neutering."
Moody interrupted. "They can call it 'selling', they can call it 'adopting', either way, it doesn't matter. Muggle laws don't apply to wizards, they have no claim to her."
Bagnold was looking over the papers carefully. Mr. McGonagall, with his muttering and stumbling, seemed to her to be a distraction. "Would someone do something about him!"
Dippet, as Headmaster, was able to disable the anti-muggle ward affecting him. The man still looked slightly dazed, but at least he had stopped walking into the furniture.
Bagnold seemed to still be thinking things out as she spoke. "It has Loki's signature on it as the one who left her there to be put up for adoption; he initiated the adoption proceedings. At the time of the signing, Loki was a Ministry employee…and therefore a Ministry representative. I believe these papers can be considered binding, Alastor."
Bagnold looked from the papers in her hand to the Dementors before continuing. "In which case, it would be we who have no claim on her…and our laws which would not apply to her. The muggles are free to take her."
Moody shook his head. "Millicent, you don't understand! You can't just let her leave!"
"Alastor, they want to take her. She wants to go with them. Let them take her! What would you have me do? She's only a child -"
"She's killed! She'll do it again! You know she will!"
By her switch to a more formal designation, Bagnold made it clear that her mind was made up. "Mr. Moody, for the moment, I am the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the acting Minister of Magic. The decision is mine to make, not yours. The muggles can take her home and like any muggleborn witch or wizard, when the proper time comes, she will receive a letter inviting her to attend Hogwarts and enter our society."
Right at that moment, Dumbledore could have kissed Millicent Bagnold, warts and all. While her interpretation wasn't completely outside the realm of reason, he knew she was making much more of a stretch to find a suitable solution than anyone else at the Ministry would. Certainly more than the late Minister would have done.
Moody, however, was beside himself. "You cannot be serious! Millicent, you don't know what you are doing!"
Millicent ignored Moody and directed her attention to Mrs. McGonagall. "You understand that she needs constant supervision."
Mrs. McGonagall nodded. "She will be with me all the time. I don't work."
Bagnold nodded. "She can be…dangerous to be around. I can send an owl with you that you can use to contact one of us if there are any…problems that arise, but I can't promise that in the time it takes for the owl to reach us…"
Mrs. McGonagall was determined. "We will be fine."
Bagnold turned to Mr. McGonagall. "How do you feel about this?"
"I…we wanted a cat to keep my wife company now that our son is going away to university…" Mr. McGonagall looked like he still hadn't quite caught up entirely on what was going on. "…but, I think a little girl would do even better."
Bagnold spoke a bit less than certainly. "That's settled then -"
"No! It isn't settled! You can't do that! She's a murderer!"
"Moody, stay here with Mr. Riddle. We can get him to the Ministry and sorted out when I return." None too pleased with Moody, Bagnold motioned the others towards the door. "Let's get you on your way then."
"Here now, you're a bit too big now for Mum to be carrying all round." Kitten still hadn't said a word, but she went willingly enough to Mr. McGonagall when he reached out to take her from his wife. "That's a good kitty."
Dumbledore didn't think much on it at the time, but Tom Riddle did express his unhappiness at the arrangement and though they didn't say anything, no doubt the Dementors were less than pleased as well.
Leaving Moody and Dippet behind to supervise a livid Tom, Dumbledore accompanied a happy Hagrid, a nervous Bagnold and the two very disappointed Dementors as they escorted the now three McGonagalls from the grounds.
###################################################################
Alastor Moody couldn't believe it. She killed him. She killed him and she laughed while doing it. But one wasn't enough for her. She had tried to kill everyone in the room. She would have too if it hadn't been for Dippet.
But the Minister hadn't been her first. No, her first had been that poor, pitiful, elderly professor.
Two men were dead and it was his fault. Moody knew if he had done his job the right way, if he had told the Minister the truth as soon as he learned it, none of this would have happened. But he hadn't. He had been taken in by the facade of a child-like appearance and failed to recognize her for the sadistic creature that she truly was. And now two men had lost their lives because of it.
Millicent Bagnold was about to make the very same mistake. She was going to let that thing just walk away. She was going to give her a chance to do it again. Moody had to stop Bagnold. He had to prevent her from repeating his mistakes.
"Watch him. I'll be back in a few minutes for him."
Leaving the Headmaster to guard wandless Riddle, Moody took off to again try to talk some sense into the new acting Minister of Magic.
###################################################################
He had asked too much and now he was being made to suffer for it. In the end, they would all be made to suffer for it.
Armando Dippet had long held the Vision of the part that the Fates had assigned Mr. Riddle to play in the distant future. He had Seen him put an end to the Grindelwald girl's, by then a woman, attempts to slaughter all of the adults within the halls of Hogwarts.
That Mr. Riddle's stopping her would come to pass, he had been sure, but only after many lives had already been lost. He had not been content with that. Instead, he had pressed Mr. Riddle to exert an influence upon the girl and alter the future before any of it had a chance to come to pass.
An influence had been exerted, but not at all in the manner or direction that Dippet had desired. Instead of Mr. Riddle redeeming her, the girl had succeeded in corrupting Mr. Riddle. It was an outcome that even without the gift of Sight, Dippet of all people should have been able to foresee.
And how she had corrupted him! Of his own volition, Dippet was certain that the boy would never have forced himself upon the girl. Nor would he have attempted his assault of Master Dumbledore. Dippet had little…Dippet had no doubt that today's actions by Mr. Riddle were the girl's affect. Now the girl was to walk free and Mr. Riddle was to be sent to Azkaban.
The boy had some failings. He had, in the past, done some things that Dippet had found it difficult, though necessary, to overlook. However, Dippet had always been confident that the boy would eventually find his true self. His Vision of that Future event surely proved that. Hadn't it?
But Azkaban was not the sort of place to which one went to find his or herself. It was not a place of rehabilitation, but of castigation. One could not suffer the horrors held within the walls of that fortress without being irrevocably and devastatingly altered. Even if the period of imprisonment for the young man's crimes did not extend far enough into the future to prevent him from being available to stop the girl, Dippet found it unlikely that his time at Azkaban would leave him with any ambition to act to stop her.
If Mr. Riddle would no longer stop her, who would?
"Mr. Riddle, you must leave now, before the auror and the others return. We must send you into hiding."
"What about Kitten? I won't leave her with those muggles!"
How complete was her corruption of the boy, how total her control over him that even facing an interval in Azkaban and her abandonment of him, Riddle refused to be willingly parted from her?
"Mr. Riddle, you must. There is no time to argue and no other alternative. Do not fret. When the time is right, you will find her again. The owlry, Mr. Riddle. Look to the owlry. You will find her there, but only when the time is right."
Dippet summoned the boy's wand and other possessions from his rooms, before bidding him on his way.
tbc