Chapter 34 – Snake Club
Lizzie didn't take the train back to school but was instead transported directly to McGonagall's office through the floo network. She spent the afternoon walking the grounds with Tonks as they waited for the train to arrive.
Snape stopped them both in the corridor on the way back up to Gryffindor tower. Tonks gave him a suspicious look. "Dumbledore is summoning you this evening. Something to discuss with you before term starts," he said, handing her a note. He stalked off without another word leaving silent apprehension in his wake.
She entered the circular office to Dumbledore pacing aggressively. He didn't notice she'd come in. "Professor?" Lizzie asked, and he startled at the sight.
"Good, you're here, I need to show you something and then I have a bit of mission for you," he explained.
"Alright..." Lizzie said cautiously.
"That was a close call at the Burrow," he added grimly, almost like an after thought.
"Well, my animagus form is likely compromised now. But everyone is safe so..." Lizzie said sadly. Dumbledore nodded slightly.
"I'm not sure what information he's able to comprehend or retain in that form, I think you might be alright on the animagus front, at least for the time being... anyway. I have a memory from Professor Slughorn about our friend Tom Riddle. I want to see what you make of it," he explained.
Lizzie dipped her face into the pensive after Dumbledore emptied the vial he was holding into the basin.
The first thing she noticed was the familiar hour glass. Slughorn was sitting with a group of all male students, the sixteen-year-old Tom she remembered from the diary sat nearest to him at the table. They were chatting as he normally did with his Slug Club pupils, though Slughorn was less awkward and far younger.
Lizzie noticed Tom's demeanor and pervasiveness immediately. It was charming mixed with off-putting. He was also noticeably reading Slughorn's thoughts and emotions. Lizzie also noticed how exceedingly handsome he was and it gave her the chills. She'd forgotten how much so from the Chamber ordeal, and it only served to make his cunningness and manipulation tactics more successful. It also made it incredibly disturbing in comparison to they way he appeared now, evidence of what he traded for pure power.
"Sir, is it true Professor Merriwhether is retiring?" Tom asked.
"Tom, I couldn't tell you if I knew. Thank you by the way for the pineapple, it is my favorite, beyond me how you knew," he praised, but looked at Tom intently.
"Just intuition..." Tom said dismissively, with a weak smirk and sparkle in his eyes.
"Avery, I cannot keep extending your due date for that Living Drafts essay, dear boy, is the end of the week a stretch?"
"No, not at all, professor, my apologies by the way. I took eight NEWTS, bit more than I could chew, regrettably. I appreciate the extension," the blonde haired, blue eyed boy across from Tom said politely. Lizzie shivered when she realized this was his first group of followers, so of whom had been complicit in the graveyard and at the manor.
"Augustus, Rosier, I do hope you both have found a new seeker for the upcoming match? Nott will be out for at least a month or two," Slughorn asked.
"Not yet, sir, but I put out an all call for tryouts this weekend," Rookwood said reassuringly. It was surreal to Lizzie that they'd all been around that same table, discussing the same trivial things that her and her peers had. Slug Club must have been exclusively Slytherin at the time from the looks of it.
"Great Scott's look at the hour, Professor Dippitt will have us all in detention if you boys don't get back," Slughorn laughed.
The boys filed out as Lizzie leaned again a cabinet watching, wondering how even-tempered, attractive, well up-in-coming young men all turned into lunatics. Then again, if Vernon's cult church proved anything to her, it was that anyone could be turned into despicable sheeple. Not to mention the inherent draw to Riddle even she hated to admit existed.
Tom stayed behind, much like she had after the first dinner.
"Looking sharp, Tom, can I get you anything?" Slughorn asked.
"Sir, I wanted to ask you something... I don't think the other professors would understand," he said, moving toward the hearth and staring into the fire.
"Anything my boy, ask away," Slughorn invited.
"It's about something I came across in the restricted section. Rare bit of dark magic..." he started to explain. Slughorn frowned apprehensively and shifted dramatically in demeanor.
"It's called as I understand it, a ..." but the memory became muffled and hazy. Slughorn's face went cold in shock and he shook his head fervently.
"No Tom, please off to bed, I don't know what you're referring to," he said harshly, and the memory faded to black as Lizzie reentered Dumbledore's office.
"Confused? I'd be surprised if you weren't," Dumbledore asked, leaning against his desk and eyeballing her for reaction.
"I don't understand, no. It's like record hitting a deep scratch, what happened?" Lizzie asked.
"This is probably the most important memory I've collected. Slughorn mentioned to me that Tom went asking about bits of dark magic around the time this occurred. He didn't offer much detail at the time and I didn't think much of it until it dawned on me that he'd been performing them on his first rise to power. I asked Slughorn for this memory, and it is a lie... he tampered with it. I think he's ashamed of what he told him," Dumbledore explained.
"But - if it helps us understand what he was doing?" Lizzie asked incredulously.
"Exactly. Lizzie, I need you to obtain the real memory. You can harness those same powers of persuasion, you've been successful at establishing a relationship... but you cannot fail...we need to know what he was doing, it will be essential," Dumbledore said. Lizzie nodded in understanding.
"Sir, do the terms Vedma and Vedmak mean anything to you?" Lizzie asked.
"Bulgarian folklore and legends... but there are similar depictions across cultures," Dumbledore said.
"Right, sorry, I refer to them as such because it was something Viktor explained to me. Are they akin to dopplegangers?" Lizzie asked.
"Dopplegangers fall into two categories, Lizzie. There is a psychiatric component on one hand that occurs when someone is battling two conflicted minds. It's the embodiment of inner conflict. On the other hand it is the embodiment of split souls, not the mind. Those have more sinister ramifications," Dumbledore explained.
"Vedmas are split souls are they not?" Lizzie asked.
"Vedmas, as I understand them manifest as dopplegangers and are most akin to spirtual judges. An act of murder is committed and the violation causes a split in the soul of the one who did it. That split leaves their body and seeks to judge them, and it haunts them until they face the judgment," Dumbledore explained.
"What is the judgment?" Lizzie asked.
"The vedma is killed. Upon killing it, the witch or wizard who created it will either die or... not. This is dependent on the motives for killing their victim to begin with. Pure malice will result in their death, revenge often won't depending on the severity to which they seek it. Self defense does not generally cause a split to begin with," Dumbledore embellished.
"I thought it was just witches?" Lizzie asked.
"No, that's just the folklore and because it is a more common phenomena amongst witches. Women were most heavily persecuted for witchcraft," he clarified.
"Vedmaks then?" Lizzie asked.
"Debt collectors. Vedmaks are debt collectors. They enforce a judgment so to speak. They usually only result when a murder is so heinous in nature that the trial a Vedma would impose doesn't need to be deliberated. They seek a debt of equal value. It's said to only occur when a witch or wizards life is taken because of the power lost. Vedmaks have already decided the fate of the witch or wizard who created them. So the witch or wizard can offer themselves, or the body of their victim to which the Vedmak will take over, or alternatively, another soul..."
"This is not a righteous quest on behalf of the Vedmak though, it's reparation," he added.
"How do you mean?" Lizzie asked.
"The split is comprised only of the evil characteristics needed to commit the act. The body it manifests as seeks reparation from the wizard because they lost their full form, their full soul, they're broken you see? Damaged. So they want a body of equal value to inhabit, by whatever means necessary," he explained.
"What would it look like?" Lizzie asked.
"I don't know the answer to that... I'm inclined to think either the victim or the witch or wizard themselves, whichever compels them to make payment," Dumbledore speculated.
"Have you discovered anything more about these murders you've witnessed in the dreams?" Dumbledore asked.
"Erm... yes. First, that my friend Melody was the niece of Myrtle Warren...Myrtle appeared in my dreams as well, I think she was more than a muggle born killing for the basilisk," Lizzie said, handing him her notes that he took and scanned through fervently.
"Second, that there are two others... a Catholic Albanian girl, he killed nearly the entire congregation with poisoned sacrament. The last is his snake Nagini, she was a maledictus, young girl, part of an Irish Gypsy circus. He killed her as a snake and animated it as an inferius..." Dumbledore looked up at Lizzie sharply, frowning in deep contemplation.
"Third... that each of their bodies was used differently, except Myrtle, which is why I think Melody was a replacement. If Leah was his Vedmak that would make sense. The only other human body not offered was for Nagini, but that's where I think I came in at the graveyard. He was going to give my body to her," Lizzie explained.
"How are they used?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well, my theory is that Leah was the trigger point. Myrtle was next but no body was offered and she stayed behind as a spirit anyway. I think that's also why he went after Ginny, the Riddle in the diary wouldn't have known about Melody... Ginny fits the profile..."
"Renee, his muggle half-sister, was burned, we found an article about it. The Albanian girl, Nora, was dug up. Based on an article about the convent she lived at, a nun reported finding a decayed body, mostly bones in one of their empty beds...Then the orphan, Emily, the one he illegitimately adopted briefly, was missing all her organs. Hepzibah's niece, Amelia, was cut up and left in the floorboards. Nagini means snake, it was a stage name for the girl, Adrianna. She had a blood curse... "
"So soul, flesh, bones, organs, limbs, and blood. I don't know if that's an equal exchange for Leah or not, but does that type of magic mean anything to you?" Lizzie asked. Dumbledore looked flushed and removed his spectacles to iron his face with his hands.
"Not specifically, but most dark magic deals with that general type of sacrificial offering. Like what you experienced in the graveyard..." Dumbledore said with a dry voice.
"Keep everything, Lizzie," Dumbledore reminded, and she assured him that she would. Lizzie left the office with a strange pit in her stomach and voice ringing in her ears. She wondered if what was allowing her to view these secrets of his was out for his head to the same degree she was.