CHAPTER 12: TALKING ABOUT SPLIT LORDS
Harry received a lot of mail over the course of the next few days responding to his letter to the Daily Prophet, and unsurprisingly not all of it was supportive. Perhaps the most surreal experience of it all was receiving a howler from the normally calm and timid Neville, saying that he was mentally deranged and ten times worse then Malfoy. The whole experience had been made infinitely worse when he had discovered that the blond had been standing behind him the whole time and had heard every word shouted by Neville's magically amplified voice. Harry hadn't heard the end it, but then Malfoy had teased him mercilessly about all the other letters received, both supportive and critical. But then that was all the two ever did over the duration of the summer, insult each other trade sarcastic comments back and forth with the aim of winding the other boy up. Of course they had serious conversations as well, but they were few and far between especially considering how frequently Malfoy came over to Llyn-y-Fach. He didn't bother asking the blond why exactly he came to visit every other day until a few days before they were due back at Hogwarts,
"The Manor can be a somewhat lonely place, and this is the only other place I can find some intelligent conversation during the holidays." the xanthochroid had drawled in response to Harry's question.
"Well that's your fault for having dumb friends isn't it." Harry responded with a dark chuckle.
Malfoy looked somewhat insulted at something, Harry wasn't sure what and the blond boy explained, "Crabbe and Goyle are not my friends," he hissed surprisingly vehemently for a moment before letting his tone return to normal, "Although they are useful as bodyguards, especially against Pansy and Queenie."
"They guard you from your own housemates," Harry choked, for some reason he found the image of Crabbe and Goyle trying to protect the blond from the attentions of his two fan girls hilariously funny.
"Well they can be a bit persistent, but then it's not surprising really. I am devilishly handsome and totally irresistible." Malfoy drawled deadly seriously, with a carefree smirk, "I can't help it if some girls just can't control themselves around me, it's only to be expected." Harry wasn't particularly surprised by the sheer arrogance of the comment, he had come to expect it from the blond whose ego was bigger than Harry had previously believed was humanly possibly. It did however provide good ammunition to tease Malfoy with.
The only other thing of significance that happened during the remainder of the summer holidays occurred not long after the Daily Prophet article, a full two weeks before Harry questioned Malfoy about the frequency of his visits. It all began with a letter from an anonymous death eater that his grandfather later identified to be Augustus Lacetter. The letter itself wasn't that significant, merely containing various threats, including one referring to the wand core he shared with Voldemort, and a off-handed comment that at least Muggles were useful for something, even if it was killing Harry.
Malfoy turned up at lunchtime, dressed for a seekers-only quidditch match against Harry and carrying his Nimbus 2001. Harry wasn't ready for their match when he arrived though, as he was too busy eating lunch, leaving Malfoy to leaf through the pile of letters that he had received over the past few days, that had yet to be thrown away. Lacetter's letter was about a quarter of the way down the pile. Malfoy was shocked to the core by one particular thing it had said, the implications of which were quite frightening for the dark side, and explained why exactly Voldemort was so obsessed with killing Potter.
"You and the dark lord have brother wands." he exclaimed, forgetting that Harry had told him this during his rant on the day of the picnic, when they had called a truce.
Harry was somewhat puzzled by the outburst. From the way the blond had spoken it sounded as if the shared wand core was vitally important, but for the life of him he didn't know why, perhaps it was yet another thing that Dumbledore hadn't been telling him, and it wasn't as if his family had had time to explain everything they knew surrounding his parents death, besides he hadn't asked them for the truth, "So?" he queried in response, he couldn't really see the significance attached to having brother wands, after all the Priori Incantatem could easily be avoided even if it made your spells slightly less powerful.
"But that means you're as powerful as the dark lord!" Malfoy exclaimed; sounding slightly horrified by the prospect. Harry was confused and slightly thrilled at the possibility of being as powerful as the monster that just wouldn't leave him alone, it would certainly make his task of killing him a lot easier.
Correctly interpreting Harry's look of confusion and surprise Richard intervened on Harry's behalf, "He's one of the lords of magic, the counterpart of Tom Riddle," Harry resented being called anything other than the mortal enemy of Tom Riddle and wasn't afraid to indicate his displeasure at the comparison.
"I presume he's the Lord of Light Magic, Dumbledore's successor?" Malfoy replied thoughtfully, speaking to Richard. Harry was somewhat annoyed about being spoken about as if he wasn't there, but he didn't say anything, as he was desperate to find out more.
"There is no such thing as a Lord of Light Magic, Draco except if Harry chose to call himself that," his uncle's voice said from the doorway. Harry was slightly surprised to see Sam walking into the room, it was the first time he'd seen Sam at a mealtime since Harry had arrived at Llyn-y-Fach as the red head was normally far too busy to attend, "He was born a Lord of Blood Magic, counterpart to Tom Riddle who is the Lord of Mind Magic."
"But, Fath…" Malfoy began to protest, defending what Harry presumed to be the knowledge Lucius Malfoy had taught his son.
"Who is the expert Draco, your father or I?" Sam sniped defensively, interrupting Malfoy. He had. The blond thought for a few moments before saying, much to Harry's surprise, that in this instance it was Sam who was the more knowledgeable. It was well known how much Draco admired his father.
"Your father can be excused for assuming that they are the Lords of Light and Dark Magic," Sam lectured, sounding scarily like one of Harry's teachers. He glanced over at Harry while saying this, as if to indicate he was speaking to the raven-haired boy as well as Malfoy, "The belief that Blood Magic is dark magic, while Mind Magic is light magic is an old superstition and completely false. Dark Magic can be of either type."
"Excuse me, but what the hell is all this Lords of Magic business." Harry snapped irritably, he was somewhat confused by this all business, except for the fact that he was a Lord of Blood Magic, a type of magic which he had never heard of, but was apparently believed to be dark. Not that it really mattered whether a magic spell was dark or not, merely if it got the job done, but even so the idea of being perceived as a Lord of Dark Magic was a horrible one, it made him too much like Voldemort.
Sam smiled briefly before replying, "It's a an old superstition, which seems to bear out in practice, although no-one is quite sure why. They're just two titles given to the two most powerful wizards born in each century, with no special powers attached. It's just a series of bizarre coincidences that the most powerful blood mage and the most powerful mind mage in each century happen to have brother wands, and tend to be mortal enemies."
Harry broke into a relieved grin, glad that this latest revelation to affect his life was a positive one, "So it doesn't affect my ability to kill Voldemort then?"
"Not at all." Sam replied with a knowing smirk. The red head knew exactly where Harry's priorities lay. Harry sighed with relief, he still wasn't happy about being described as Voldemort's counterpart, but then that was his grandfather being ignorant. Harry suspected that his grandfather was not an expert in such things as magical theory, whilst his uncle was.
"What's the difference between Mind Wizards and Blood Wizards if both types can cast the same spells." Malfoy asked. Harry was surprised by the curiosity that Malfoy showed when the he asked the question, the blond may have the third highest marks in the year behind Hermione and Stephen Cornfoot, but even so he wasn't known for taking an interest in his studies.
"Practically not much except if you practice the more arcane magics," Sam replied, unlike Harry he didn't seem surprised by Malfoy's question, "But otherwise it only affects which spells you find easier to learn and which spells you are more able to resist."
"So why does everyone take the distinction so seriously?" Draco asked again, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he let Sam's words sink in.
There was a slight smirk from Sam, "It's only the dark families that take the distinction seriously Draco, as several spells used in a dark bonding ritual can only be cast by blood wizards, which is why the dark lord doesn't bond his followers to him, but uses the dark mark instead."
"But surely the dark mark contains a bonding spell?" Draco commented, "It wouldn't work otherwise, as the dark lord wouldn't be able to summon his followers."
Sam glanced at his father, who shrugged and said, "We've never been able to identify which spells Voldemort uses in the dark mark, but we do know that he isn't linked to his death eaters at all, but has to use one of his follower's dark marks to summon a meeting." Malfoy raised a disbelieving eyebrow at this, before querying why this was the case.
"Probably read about the Dark Lord Nachthoffer who was killed when one of his followers used the dark lord/follower bond to drain him of his powers and become the dark lord Mortesan. Besides the bond that most dark lords use can only be cast by blood wizards, Nachthoffer used a Mind Wizard bond to bond his followers to him and see where that led him." Sam replied, with a shrug. It was clear that he was only theorising.
"History was one of Tom's favourite subjects at school, despite the fact that Binns taught it. I wouldn't be surprised if Voldemort had used some of Tom's historical knowledge to help him." Richard intervened, before Malfoy could respond. There was an emotion in his voice that Harry couldn't identify.
Harry was shocked that anyone could find Binn's history lessons interesting, as even Sam who also had a love of history had hated the ghost's lessons. He then realised they were talking about the young Voldemort, who was probably already a mad psychopath before he had even got to Hogwarts. This did raise another question though, "How do you know what subjects Voldemort liked at school?" he asked accusingly.
"I don't, but I do know that Tom Riddle liked History, Charms and Ancient Runes, as he was my best friend…"
"Voldemort was your best friend at school!" Harry hissed vehemently, interrupting his grandfather. He was both disgusted and angry at this revelation, "I trusted you, and you turn out to be his damn friend." He made to walk out of the room, but was stopped by Sam, who forced him to look back at his grandfather, even if he only gave Richard an angry glare.
Richard was angry too, Tom Riddle was a sensitive subject for him, the pain of losing his best friend to the monster that had christened itself Voldemort was still fresh, even if it was fifty years after the transformation had taken place, "I am not, was not and never will be a friend of Voldemort," he spat, "As far as Tom and I am concerned, Voldemort and Tom Riddle are two separate entities who happen to share the same body. One is my best friend, the other is my worst enemy."
The grandfather and grandson glared at each other, as the younger man responded to the older man's questions and the older man answered them, "Then explain why Tom Riddle opened the chamber of secrets in his fifth year, whilst calling himself Lord Voldemort." Harry sneered, hoping he could catch Richard out. He was out of luck.
"He didn't, Voldemort did." Richard retorted angrily, before taking a deep breath and trying to adopt a calmer tone. He didn't succeed in totally conquering his anger because his grandson was still glaring at him fiercely, but he was certainly calmer than before. But all this calm did was allow sadness to creep into his voice as he talked about his long lost best friend, who he had tried and failed to help so long ago, "Tom had a split personality, normally he was a brilliant, highly intelligent and loyal friend, who was utterly ruthless to his enemies. He was always calm, never angry, unnaturally so. He was the perfect Slytherin." Richard's eyes suddenly turned hard and cold again, his voice became angry again, as he started to speak about the dark lord, "Then there was Voldemort, the potential dark lord battling to control Tom, created out of Tom's hatred for his father, and his supposed guardians at the orphanage. He's a being created out of the hate and anger that Tom locked up inside himself and refused to release," Again Richard's tone of voice and expression changed to that of a weary and pained old man. It was an emotion that increased as he spoke, so that by the end of his speech, he was a quivering wreck mourning the loss of a friend who had been destroyed from within. It was clear that he felt exceptionally guilty about something, "In the end it consumed him, only for small periods at first, an hour or two, but enough to open the chamber of secrets and kill a muggle-born. Then Tom started to lose control for longer and longer periods, until finally just before the end of seventh year it consumed him utterly. He asked me to help him, to beat the monster within, but I couldn't," Tears started to well in Richard's eyes, much to his grandson's shock, "I failed him, Harry. I failed my best friend and look what happened, he became a mass murderer." Richard broke utterly as tears streamed down his face. His wife and son moved to comfort him. One of his grandsons stood rooted to the spot, shock replacing anger, as he dealt with what he had just heard. It didn't take long though to realise that Richard hated Voldemort as much as Harry did, the dark lord had effectively killed his best friend after all.
Sincerest apologies for taking so long, but I've been busy and when I've had free time, lazy. It's finally written though. Having said that it's not a paticularly good chapter, but then that's because it's lots of neccessary information with out much action, and only passing mention of the main plotline.
The split personality idea was kind of last minute, but it doesn't disrupt the plot line that much. I had originally planned to use it, but dropped it a few weeks ago for a more original idea. It's back though, combined with the other idea, which I haven't given you any hints of yet. Suffice to say there is a lot more to be learnt about Tom Riddle's transformation into the snake faced dark lord we see in cannon, after all Richard does not know the full story.
The other key plot point in this chapter is the Lords of Magic idea, which is mentionned in the title of this fic (Two Lords, anybody). Naturally the true significance of Harry's status as 'Lord of Blood Magic' is yet to be revealed, but no it does not include any special powers that turn him into superpowerful demi-god! Harry, and yes it will cause rifts with the Gryffindors and bring him closer to the Slytherins.
Oh and Neville's Howler was inspired by Lokia, who seems to think that Neville is full of malice.
Finally, Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter Eleven. The reviews were much appreciated.