FAN FICTION AU AND TIME TRAVEL
Flipped
Summary
Female Harry Potter (Juniper) wins the war but the cost is too much so she performs a ritual and performs dimension travel after much research when she is 24. Her counterpart is Cordelia Faye Black, the daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy. Has memories of both the worlds. Lives in France. When Juniper (Harry) seeps into consciousness, she is 14. Born on Beltane. Thus even though she is a girl, she has a high standing among the Blacks. Has gone to Beauxabatons for her first three years. Born on May 1, 1927. Start school in 1938. Goes to Hogwarts in 1942. Meets Tom Riddle. (Romance and power play)
Disclaimer: The characters and the world in the story belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not earning any profit from it.
Note: I have been a fanfiction reader for quite a lot of years before I gave this fic a shot, so if you see any ideas seeping in that I do not openly acknowledge, just let me know and I will add the credits. I have read too many to keep a track of them but I will try my best.
1) The idea of totems belongs to Catsarecool who is writing A Maurader's plan .
2) The basic idea of dimension travel comes from Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning by Aariya07. You will see quite a few similarities in the first couple of chapters but it diverges after that.
3) Harry was born a girl as Juniper Anastasia Potter. Everything is as it is in canon except for her romances and nineteen years later. This is not because I don't read slash or like it. You will see a lot of them in my favorites but because I don't think that I could do justice to that genre and because I want to do this. If you do not like such fics, do not read. Please do not flame. I will welcome criticisms, I know I am not perfect, just don't meaninglessly bash me for nothing.
For your references
"Talk"
"Thought"
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 28
Erin
Cordelia's POV
Sneaking out at night has always been one of my things. In my 6 years at Hogwarts, I hardly recall a year when I actually did not violate the curfew. In fact, I violated it in my in absentia 7th year as well when I had sneaked into the Ravenclaw tower with Luna.
And it is not like that my entrance into the magical world or Hogwarts had corrupted me.
I have been sneaking out at night since I gained consciousness. With the Dursleys, I had to sneak out at night to get myself food from the fridge in the dead of the night for pretty much all of my life with them. Well, except for days when my body was so broken or tired that I could not move.
It did not end with the battle and war. I sneaked out of the Burrow to walk under the stars, away from the mixed misery and elation of the house. I sneaked out of Grimmauld place to escape the darkness of the house and the constant reminder of Sirius. Then, when I inadvertently moved to Malfoy manor for some time, I ran out in the gardens to escape the memory of Hermione's screams as Bellatrix tortured her.
I never had a stable home for the next 5 to 6ish years, dividing my time between the Slytherin estate, whatever apartment I had rented in whatever place where I was learning about magic or my tent. Sometimes I stopped by the Malfoy manor and the Burrow but I never usually stayed for more than a couple of days.
But I had always sneaked out, to pubs for satiating my need for alcohol, to rivers, bridges and lakes so that I could stare into the vast nothingness, to the roofs of skyscrapers so that I could see the world and myself becoming smaller and smaller. But mostly, I always turned to the grave of Tom Riddle. I sneaked out from the protective gaze of Salazar because he informed Sid of my every move even when Sid did not snoop.
So yeah, it has been my thing and when I don't do my thing for a long time, I get edgy I guess.
And I could not sneak out for the past month because Tom would not have been able to sleep without me. It had been nice at the Black manor and before that because I sneaked into his room every night. But now that I lived in the Slytherin chambers (he had been very insistent), there was no more scope for sneaking away.
I am not complaining really! Actually sleeping every night after years felt great. Like really great. And sleeping next to Tom was bliss. The warmth of being near him, that feeling, it was incomparable.
But as I said I get edgy….
So tonight, I had used my time turner (because I could not leave Tom alone in the bed, he would have woken up) and now my one body was sneaking out of Hogwarts ground towards the apparition point.
And no one could catch me. I had my invisibility cloak. I had no trace over me. I was free to do whatever I wanted.
So, you might ask me what the issue at hand was….
The issue was that I remembered my history of sneaking out.
Since, I had deftly blocked my memories and emotions (and I still did not feel emotions, I just remembered bare facts), so I should not recall any of it.
I knew it. I should not have stopped Tom from torturing Renatus further. His stupid stupefy and that magical coma had haywire-d my magical mental shields that had appeared during the blocking ritual.
Now, they were so problematic that I could not undo them and cast them again. But they were not functioning as I wanted them to.
So, I was stuck. I gritted my teeth.
It was like that there were cracks in the shields and now the shields could only break on their own. And when they will break, I will in for an onslaught. Maybe, I would black out like I used to with the memories of earlier filli magicae.
All I could do was guess because truly, no mind art could block so many memories together, I had used sheer magic to bind them. It was an impulsive move. That is what Sid would have called it.
I had literally barred my memories associated with the people around me.
I still remembered them and used them in daily life, like I knew spells, I knew facts about things…
It was just a complicated mumbo jumbo that I had done with intentions and not actual approved rituals.
But it was done, and because it was broken, I was remembering my memories like reading an encyclopedia. Tons of information, not just about spells or things, but about people and my days.
I remembered Hermione's screams but my horror was absent. I remembered my drunkard days but the misery was absent. I remembered my tea parties with Narcissa and Andy, but I just had no emotions attached to them.
And they came and disappeared like wind. One second I would remember something and the next I would forget… like a bad sci-fi film or something. I had watched my share of them with…
See…I forgot.
Anyway, so enough about something impulsive that I did! Because honestly, that is a casual occurrence; I had not been the Gryffindor poster child for nothing.
Let us get to the matter at hand; the real reason that I was sneaking out in the middle of the night. And no, edgy is not the only explanation.
So, one of the organizing systems that I had made with my friends while I had planned my trunk was reminders of important days in history; Muggle and magical both.
Like 2 days ago, Hitler gave some milestone speech in Berlin. Can you imagine? Hitler? I had just heard horror stories about him in Muggle School and now he was living, breathing in the same air as me, just few countries away.
Honestly, I was very tempted to butt in the muggle war. There were still 3 years left to its end. Pearl Harbor, Atom bombs, the concentration camps of Nazis; all of them accounted for plenty of losses of life. Losses I could prevent.
But the thing was that I could not risk it. Even though I am impulsive, I could not risk changing the outcome of the world war. It would not end well. I mean what if my interference installed a regime of sycophant muggles who discovered magicals and destroyed us.
That was a very possible possibility.
So, see I will explain it as best as I can without diagrams.
There is a network of events and people that influence the outcome of situations that are relevant for a certain group of people. You know, like concurrent and overlapping circles. One circle for the world war, one smaller circle for Britain, one even smaller circle for Magical Britain; that is how you can picture it I guess and they meet with each other at places.
So intervening in the larger muggle circle, especially in events of a world war meant that I interfered in the path of the biggest circle; and that would impact the whole world, muggle and magical alike.
The circle that represented magical affairs, and only that of Hogwarts and children of British world, was a smaller circle. It was a circle that I could manage even if things went out of hand or got unpredictable.
So, I had been instructed to stick to it. By whom? I am not sure; but it sounds like a very crucial piece of commandments that I had rote memorized before time travelling.
So, that meant no interfering with Grindelwald, not butting in the British Ministry (and interfering in the circle of magical Britain) until my place was solidified at least by Tom's side and a lot more….
But the thing is that sneaking out is not my only thing. Not following rules is one of my things too.
So, what was I doing? Breaking that commandment of course.
I had done calculations see.
So, the circle of Grindelwald and his influence did not exist independently. No circle existed in isolation. It overlapped with some other circles, most notably with the world war. Now that overlap was out of control, it had its own mediation. I was going to stay away from that.
Besides those giant overlaps, there were smaller overlaps, of smaller events, raids, political threats, less significant people, bribery, etc.
Now interfering with those would affect the circle, but the effect would be so minute for the larger circle for Grindelwald, that there would be negligible difference in how things will unfold.
And I was planning to do just that.
See, Grindelwald had stayed away from Britain, away from Dumbeldore. But it does not mean that he had done nothing on the British soil. There were spies and a thread of information and all sort of war stuff.
No, I was not planning on nabbing a spy. That was too attention seeking.
I was planning on stopping something that had happened on accident.
It was not part of most records, no newspaper had published it. Only one department of Ministry of Magic had reported a resource missing the next day.
Considering, that the department was Department of Mysteries, what the resource was known only to a few.
So, how did I get to know about it?
You see, Narcissa was a storehouse of information. She, as a docile daughter and later as a docile wife, had been very demure but highly observant. Over the years, she had noted away priceless information as people around her did not even realize what they were giving away.
But Narcissa had not been born in 1942. I mean Cygnus is a baby right now, c'mon. He can't father his third daughter when he is so much away from adolescence.
She had stumbled upon this information in one of the death eater meetings in her days of youth from the mouth of none other than Dolohov and Pierce Nott, who had extracted the information through mind arts from a poor elder unspeakable.
Apparently, Department of Mysteries had an archive or more aptly, a storehouse that stored a wealth of unclaimed ancient stuff including books, wands, other artifacts….
Now only certain of them were on display, like the veil because they were actively being studied, but everything else was just locked away, without any purpose.
They just happened to have a bottle full of Phoenix tears which a newbie would pick up for testing so that they could replicate its healing properties.
"There is always one person in every generation who dreams of doing that." Narcissa's patronizing sigh still makes me catch my stomach from laughing too hard.
But basically, he took out the bottle of the immediate headquarters against the rules (needless to say, he was fired when it was found out). He was later mugged by a low life who worked for Grindelwald's spy and eventually, the bottle landed with Grindelwald.
So, from what my later research told me, Grindelwald never used it.
He was never bodily injured to use it except the final battle with Dumbledore where he did not take it. He had no followers that he valued enough to spend the tears on. So, the bottle landed years later with Dumbledore, who also did not need it, considering that Fawkes had appeared by his side as he defeated Grindelwald.
So, basically the bottle started no important historical trajectory in my timeline. Meaning I could steal it and it would not have an effect on anything.
Frankly, I did not need Phoenix tears. I had once been married to a Naga whose island had dozens of phoenixes. I had plenty of tears in my ingredient store.
I was only stealing it because I planned to bodily wound Grindelwald in a couple of years. And the thing was that because the timelines diverged in light of the presence of Cordelia, Grindelwald could possibly use the tears to his benefit, AGAINST ME or worse, TOM.
So, well, yes, I planned to intervene and put the bottle back where it belonged; the archive of Department of Mysteries. And hopefully obliviate the rookie about its existence (Technically, I was saving his job but I was going to flag him in my records for future reference.)
Simple!
See, I had to start small. Despite my rigorous study about Grindelwald, his methods and politics of wizarding Britain in 1940s (For instance, we had a capable Minister!), I was still a novice in this time.
I could probably brave the catastrophe of a bigger meddling as a novice too. I mean, I would escape unscathed if Grindelwald targeted Britain. I had faced worse when I had access to like a tenth of my power. (Cue: Read Voldemort)
But I could not say the same for everybody. And what right I had to unleash the bad on the world, when I possibly could not protect them with a solid guarantee.
So, I needed to grow, ensure that I had a system in place where innocents could lay low and then engage Grindelwald. At least, that was the plan.
Or I do everything clandestinely, so that Grindelwald does not link me and Britain together.
I was weighing both options. Let's see. For now, I had a stupid wizard to nab.
Cordelia's POV
The mission had been a success. I had returned normally and no one had been any wiser.
I felt bad for keeping things from Tom but the thing was that our relationship was still in a beginner's stage. I intended to tell him about the time travel and everything, just not right now.
I did not think that Tom was still ready to be confronted with the fact that he was a megalomaniac dark lord, or that he was serpentine (He is a little vain about his looks) or that he had hurt me in my timeline.
His trust and security in our relationship were still a bit wobbly and I understood where it came from. But I did not think that he would believe me when I said that I loved him despite whatever Voldemort had done to me in my life as Juniper.
The disbelief was natural and I had gone over it multiple times when I had confided my plans (to travel back in time to love Tom Riddle) to my friends back home. While they had been outraged, Tom would be devastated. He would not want to lose me or at least I hoped that he wouldn't.
Or he could be outraged just like them, not at the fact that I forgave him or did not hold him responsible for majority of the shit but at the fact that I had hidden so much from him.
I knew Tom loved me, but the love was but in a very early stage. It would not be able to bear such a strong test just yet.
So, I had to wait.
Another thing complicating my confiding in him was the situation of my memories. Normally, I would have undone them to talk Tom through them or something. Now, I had to wait until the barriers broke by themselves.
But I had learned as Juniper to enjoy the present. The good moments had been so rare in my life that I had wanted to live to the fullest whenever I was happy.
And I was currently very happy.
Why?
Well, that is what lazy weekends with your boyfriend do. Make you feel warm and giddy down to your every pore.
I and Tom had been quite busy in the setting up of court in the past month. While my cousins whined about the busy days and having to answer queries all day, I and Tom's days were not any less exhausting and filled.
I had dueled around a dozen men in the past month. Some of them, multiple times. There were some people who did not show open hostility but questioned and cross-questioned I and Tom on every single rule of Hogwarts and the logic of the laws we had laid down. So, we talked and argued, a lot.
It was invigorating to be challenged in that way, but also very exhausting.
I was tempted to punch people in their faces. Tom nearly cast hexes in annoyance. Actually, he did send hexes to people in Great Hall very discreetly but because I made a face about bodily damage, he just never strayed from stinging hexes.
To be honest, I did give a right hook to Renatus on the pretense of losing my balance when I stunned him in the second duel. It broke his nose very badly, so much that Madam Underhill had to vanish the pieces and regrow it with skelegrow.
I have never felt so satisfied in my life by doing something this mean.
Nobody agreed with me when I said that it was mean though. Orion, Anastius, Alphard, Sebastian, Charlie and Abraxas were busy guffawing to even listen to my reasoning.
Dorea and Lucretia were smiling ear to ear. Eve looked a little scared for me. Yes, I agreed that the last time I had attacked Renatus, it had not gone down well for me but this time, I was prepared.
Even Walburga had smiling eyes that contained all the mirth behind the veil of decorum.
"That was hilarious." Tom had whispered, smiled angelically and pressed his lips in my hair. That gesture was so common between the two of us now that none of my cousins even batted an eyelash.
Yes, none of them knew that Tom and I had officially begun our relationship. It was just between the two of us right now. It is not like that we were actively hiding it or something. The thing was we had not realized that we had been physically affectionate towards each other from very long. Except that now, we ravished each other's lips often and coincidentally, we were never spotted by anyone because it usually happened in the Slytherin Chambers.
But I could not say that the secrecy made me unhappy. It was nice, I guess. I know despite the absence of rumors reaching my ears that people were speculating about our relationship. Actually, the lack of rumors gave it away. There was no way that there was no gossip about how I and Tom treated each other.
Having people closely observe our relation would not have done us good. I was sure that our relationship could stand scrutiny but I would rather not delve in it until it was well, necessary.
"These two miscreants are mewing all over the room. They won't stay quiet…" Jormy's incessant hissing shook me out of my reverie.
Cordelia looked above to Tom's face. She currently lay in her balcony on top of a mattress using Tom's lap as a pillow, while he read one of the journals of the Slytherin family that they had taken out of the vaults during the break. His fingers were currently twirled in her hair and playing with them.
"They are babies Jormy. Of course, they are making noises and playing with each other. I told you that you can go and sleep in one of the other bedrooms. The mattresses are equally comfy." Tom told the snake with a sigh.
"You are ungrateful, master. For my loyalty…." Jormy began hissing again.
"Stop being melodramatic Jormy. You know you like it when they make noises. What were you calling I and Tom the other day, quiet as mice and incredibly dull. I thought you would be happy that Nyx and Lux add some resonance to your life." Cordelia muttered lazily, snuggling into Tom's abdomen.
Jormy gave both of them a really ugly look.
"Do you want me to get you dropped in the forest so that you can hunt rabbits?" Cordelia asked the beast pointedly.
"I will have to go hunting into the filthy forest to get my food. What kind of caretakers are you?" Jormy took out her tongue and moved it around in displeasure.
"The kind that want you to move your dainty body around and get some exercise." Tom said with faint amusement.
"Those mewling brats are better than you too. You just want to eat each other's faces." Jormy turned around and began slithering away from them.
Tom and Cordelia could not keep it in. They burst into loud laughter at the snake's antics.
"Well, I do agree with her. I do like to 'eat' your face." Tom said in amusement, his eyes sparkling.
Tom had gotten much, much happier and lighter. He smiled more, he indulged people more.
"It is a good thing people cannot understand her. Eating each other's faces….Priceless!" Cordelia had tears of joy running down her cheeks.
She felt Tom's lips press and linger against the center of her forehead and she basked in it, basked in his warmth and affection. She slowly raised her hands and as her fingers knotted in his hair, she lifted her face a little and Tom's lips travelled down from her forehead to her lips, and pressed against them firmly.
The magic in their heir and Lord rings thrummed as the totems of the two families appeared and watched the proceedings with glowing satisfaction, disappearing into mist before either Cordelia or Tom registered their presence.
Cordelia's POV
"You resemble Burga quite nicely right now Tom. There is no need to be so scandalized, honestly." Cordelia rolled her eyes at Tom.
"A girls' bathroom!" Tom said slowly as if he had trouble comprehending, then he jerked his head to look at her and snapped, "That is where the entrance of the chamber is." He was pointing towards the sink with disbelief and a little irritation.
Cordelia waved her wand, erecting a silencing ward, "Say it a little more loudly, Dumbledore did not hear it yet that the King and Queen are attempting to open the Chamber that promises to purge out muggleborns. As if he needs more reasons to hate us…"
Tom looked a little chastised and almost whined, "But it is a sacrilege."
Cordelia hid her laugh behind her palms as she looked at Tom's disdain filled expressions.
"Well, at first when I saw this before the break, I had thought that it was just another passageway but you have been reading the journals and well, this fits rather nicely with all the factors listed in the journal to find the Chamber." Cordelia shrugged.
"It does, but it was supposed to be a trapdoor." Tom said logically, lost in his thoughts.
'Well, plumbing did not exist in Salazar's time. It is a muggle invention. Wizards adapted it in 16th or 17th century, depending on well, their demeanors. I am sure that someone who knew about the existence of the Chamber, most likely a Gaunt, influenced and hid the entrance of chamber through plumbing, lest it be accidentally discovered in the process of the construction. Would have included a lot of bribery and memory modification spells but it was certainly doable. Ministry and board of Governors are not immune against corruption." Cordelia said thoughtfully.
"Well, this just proves that Gaunts were unhinged. A bathroom!" Tom was still in disbelief.
"I disagree. It is ingenious and quite cunning actually. Nobody would think of looking for the grand chamber in a bathroom. And Gaunts were probably very cocky and did not think that the family could fall out of favor or anything, so in a roundabout way, it makes sense." Cordelia shook her head and regarded Tom.
"Why do you have to be so logical?" Tom said sarcastically.
"Well, it is a learned trait. Honestly, sarcasm comes easier to me than logic." She honestly said.
'You did not have to answer that." Tom said a little sheepishly.
Cordelia just raised her brow at him, but her expression softened. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze which he returned.
She knew that despite everything, his lord status and stuff, Tom was still nervous.
"You do it?" She asked.
He nodded and tilted his head to eye the carving of the serpent on the tap, "OPEN."
When the sinks began moving along with the loud noises, both of them reflexively took a step back. Tom also pulled her closer as the hole came into view, almost molding her body into his, "Don't you dare fall," He whispered, trying to reign in his fear.
She leaned into him, nuzzling his neck in comfort, gripping him tightly, showing that she did not intend to fall.
Slowly, Tom' stiff posture relaxed as he took comfort in the fact that she understood his fear.
Tom wrinkled his nose at the visible pipe. It had grime and mold attached to its walls.
"I don't see any Gaunt jumping through that…"Tom said, looking Cordelia a look.
"I don't think that they would jump either." Cordelia said thoughtfully.
"Stairs?" Tom almost asked instead of commanding but the stones from the wall of the pipe moved until the pipe became a sort of a helix with steps protruding out.
"We will still slip over the grime." Cordelia whispered, "And who knows what kind of mold ancient magic and dormant years could give rise to?"
"Vanishing could work?" Tom suggested.
"I would like to test some of it, just for safety." She softly replied.
And then she waved her wand in an elaborate gesture and Tom saw a single long section of the grime being almost peeled off neatly.
She pulled out a sealed box meant for ingredients and stored the infinitely long layer of the mold and grime into the extendable box.
'Skurgo Maxima." Tom murmured when Cordelia was done.
"Depello Contagio maxima…" Cordelia murmured the disinfectant spell next.
"I am not letting us catch a rare disease because we did not vanish germs." She explained before Tom could even ask.
She started to step ahead when Tom pulled her close again, "Not so ahead…What if the basilisk is waiting…" He did not have to complete.
"Together…" She said and they took the first step together. Tom had also created a round sphere like shield around them.
The shield was the first parselmagic he had learned from the Slytherin journals. He had taken the mandate to protect her too seriously but she was not complaining.
They had been delaying visiting Chamber for a long time. Well, one, they did not have enough time on the hand. The setting up of the court had taken up a lot of time and energy, so did their familiars to be honest. Two, Tom was not in a hurry to find the chamber any more. The Lord ring on his finger was a bigger proof about his legacy than anything the Chamber could provide. Third, Tom was a little paranoid about Cordelia's safety and she highly suspected that he was delaying it just because he did not want a basilisk and her in the same room.
Classic Tom!
As they descended down the helix staircase, Cordelia kept a close eye on the architecture.
"The walls are imbued with runes. They will respond to parselmagic easily and quickly. We just need to say commands." Tom murmured.
"But these runes are not…These runes are not from 400 years ago. They are older. How strange because the walls are less than 400 years old? Their making and everything, they are not part of any curriculum. They are old, older, perhaps from Slytherin's times." Cordelia exclaimed.
"Hmmm…it just might be evidence from your theory about magic. Maybe the magic from Chamber of secrets expanded to these walls and the runes appeared by themselves in response to the magic." Tom mused.
"I told you that particular theory a few months ago, quite offhandedly, I might add?" Cordelia gave him a curious look.
"I pay attention to what you say Lia. I dare say that I paid a lot of attention even back then; you fascinated me." Tom shrugged.
Cordelia could not help the little blush that formed on her face, "Stop flattering me."
"I am saying it like it is." Tom smiled and shrugged, and kissed the top of her nose teasingly. .
Cordelia just huffed and began the downward journey again. Tom chuckled and followed her.
Tom's POV
"Is that supposed to be Slytherin?" Tom wrinkled his nose.
"He is not particularly good looking, is he?" Cordelia said in an amused tone.
"He looks like a monkey…"Tom said without care.
Cordelia sniggered, "Well, I don't think you got your godly good looks from the line of Slytherin, Tom. The Gaunts were hideous."
"Then maybe it is a Gaunt. They certainly gave me the impression of being narcissistic arseholes. I doubt Slytherin would make a statue of himself. It is just creepy, having a statue of yourself behind you as you work. Does not seem like his style from all the journals that he left behind." Tom speculated.
"Maybe you are right. Monkey face suits Gaunts better. They were inbred, had too many physical deformities. It was the talk of the town." Cordelia mused.
Tom looked around, "I mean look at the snakes. Did Salazar want the horroresque look? This is completely different from the private chambers and the Slytherin dorms. Maybe the Gaunts refurbished the place or something."
"What do his journals say?" Cordelia asked with curiosity.
"Well, he planned the chamber so that he could conduct magical experiments away from the eyes of the three founders because they sometimes disapproved but also to keep the ambient magic away from the children in the school. Slytherin was curious, very curious. He did some rather questionable stuff in the name of academic curiosity, hatching the basilisk for the example. But he experimented with the method before hatching. He fed the egg his own magic on a regular basis and imbued the egg in potions that promoted higher cognition. His Basilisk could apparently reason and was not as vile or bloodthirsty as the other basilisks but it was large and he was not sure that Godric would see reason even if Salazar tried to convince him. And Godric's reservations were not wrong either; Basilisks were considered a part of Black magic though Slytherin knew otherwise. But basically, he needed a giant home for his familiar, where she would be safe. He expanded the chamber to hold her. So, the chamber of secrets has a potions lab, a ritual room, the room for the basilisk, the antechamber or where we are standing right now. He used the antechamber to duel against golems which is why I am sure that these metal snakes were absent in his time. They would have been a hazard in dueling with their reflector surfaces. This Chamber also has numerous passageways that lead all over Hogwarts including the Slytherin common room. I am fairly sure that one would lead to the living quarters as well." Tom summarized as he pointed in random directions.
"I take it that the chamber does not resemble what he described." Cordelia simply stated.
"It does not. He was a little secretive in describing the chamber to be honest. He thought a true heir would discover all the works by himself or herself. All he mentioned was the components of the chamber." Tom was trying very hard to contain his frustration with the founder of his family but the chances were that Cordelia could see right through it.
"Well, the founders, despite their great status, were people. I am sure all of them had quirks. I am pretty sure that they had habits that were annoying and inconvenient for the people around them, so we are not the only ones who feel that way." Cordelia softly pointed out.
What had he just said? This woman constantly saw through him.
For a while, Tom had been afraid that his masks were not good enough but he had slowly realized that it was just Lia as a factor and not his inability to keep up appearances that influenced the dynamics of their relationship.
To be honest, he saw through her too. He could sense her anger, her joy and amusement from miles away.
Which is why, he could sense that she was worried about him right now but was pretending to analyze the chamber lest she give her worry away.
This was, admittedly, one of the things he loved the most about her. She did not smother him. She did not cajole him too much even when she spent her time worrying. She had this steadfast way in which she dealt with him, shooting him down or even yelling to get her point across.
In short, she treated him like a person. Not an antagonist, not someone inherently superior to her, but a person.
And that had not changed once they entered the courtship. He had been witness to great many women who had become submissive, their own personalities almost dwindling in the shine of their suitors.
He did not blame them. As Cordelia often pointed out, and as he had observed, the system was against women. If they did not become submissive, they were loud, or shrill or hysterical or attention seeking. Traits not found in 'cultured', 'well-bred' women.
Even Cordelia was very careful about her public persona. She was assertive but in a very friendly, demure way. Not as demure or as compliant as several other women, but certainly not as hostile and uncaring as he was. And he knew that she wanted to be hostile. He had seen her righteous anger against Renatus firsthand but she had still been indulgent to Renatus when he cross-questioned her about stupid things of court.
Though, Tom was very happy that she dropped all the protocols, niceties, and demureness in front of him. She would slap his back, shake his shoulders, poke and prod him, argue and debate with him like an equal.
He glanced at her sideways, her worry was more palpable now. She was chewing her bottom lip as she stared off at something.
"Lia..." He gently asked, touching her arms.
"I am thinking that once we can get an inventory of everything here, we need to refurbish this. This is crazy." Cordelia said in a measured tone, "I won't have you thinking that you need to be part of this weird thing that Gaunts had going. The earlier we can erase their existence and perversions from in front of us, the better it will be."
He could sense her rage, the serenity of her rage. He started rubbing soothing circles on his palm. It was something she did constantly to him in all the meetings, to keep him calm.
"Of course, only if you feel like it." She amended a little sheepishly.
"I seriously think that the metal snakes should be gone. Let us see if we can charm the ceiling to something more animated. We could, well, I am not any good at aesthetics, but I think you can come up with better ideas and we can do it a little by little until the summer break." Tom offered, ignoring her comment about overstepping her bounds.
He knew that she would get over it eventually. He still remembered her protest at using the consort rooms.
"I cannot possibly be that presumptuous Tom…." Her horrified voice still sent him chuckling.
"I don't suppose that Slytherin mentioned any passageway or something that could lead to the Basilisk, to, you know, protect and warn the heir?" Cordelia asked, glancing around the room.
"I am afraid, not. We are on our own. But if I have deduced the personality of Salazar very well, the man would hide things in plain sight. He was very clever in that way. However, since the Gaunts have clearly meddled with this architecture, we cannot be certain what exactly was once plain and what was not." Tom shrugged.
"Yeah well…"Cordelia nodded.
"I still think that the statue is significant. Maybe the Gaunts build the face of Salazar in their own image, paying homage to their supposed founder but actually feeding their own ego. Gaunts liked to boast. Hell, they could not keep quiet about how they were Morgana's gifts to wizarding kind. This statue also boasts something and so do those snakes. I think they all lead to different passageways; the snakes to the rest of the school and the statue to the lair of the basilisk." Tom thought and spoke aloud as he pieced the puzzle quickly in his head.
"That sounds possible. But I doubt that saying open in parseltongue would do the trick, just like the living quarters. We need something unique to the heir or the lord to open the lair." Cordelia put in her two knuts.
"It won't be the ring or blood. He won't put the same safety measure in two places. The ring opens the living quarters and the blood opens the vaults and the journals within them. Another thing that only a Slytherin would have?" Tom mused, thinking hard.
"You just said that the Gaunts have changed the layout. They had no access to the Lord or Heir ring. Their blood would not work the same way a true Heir or Lord's would. So, both of those options are out. The only thing that they had was the ability of parseltongue and possibly, the Slytherin locket." Cordelia shook her head and touched the locket quickly, giving Tom a look.
"The locket is empty or was empty. I had checked. Now it has powdered magical crystals so that it can absorb excess magic." Tom informed swiftly.
"I am thinking of ways in which a locket could function as a key but I can't." Cordelia rubbed her chin absently.
"Parseltongue?" Tom asked.
"The most likely! Maybe, they had a password that they passed down to generations." Cordelia raised both her brows.
"That means we need to guess the password." Tom said seriously.
"Not really. We need to solve the puzzle. " Cordelia declared firmly.
Tom merely gave her a questioning and doubtful look.
"No, seriously, we have clues. Gaunts clearly believed in symbolism. The password will reflect their heritage. Parseltongue is one way to do that, but I doubt that they would choose a random phrase even if it is in the snake language. So, something that links back to their Slytherin heritage. Pureblood, snakes etc. Slytherin himself was from what is now modern Ireland, maybe something to do with that. We just have to figure out what." Cordelia mused.
"Great, now we have to think like them too. That's what I was rooting for." Tom said sarcastically.
"I am pretty sure that it will be predictable. They might have descended from Slytherin but they lacked his cunning and his honor." Cordelia assured him touching his left shoulder.
"They thought they were above everybody. Better than other purebloods too, so it just cannot be related to the blood." Tom was thinking aloud.
"Why were they above everyone? What made them so great?" Cordelia prompted.
"Because they were related to Slytherin. They thought they were better, greater because they were descended from Slytherin without undiluted blood." Tom swiftly answered.
"And they hated other founders. They promoted antipathy between houses. They thought Slytherin was better than the other founders." Cordelia added.
"Slytherin, the greatest of all the Founders." Tom murmured.
"They were not always called Founders. They are more popularly known as the Hogwarts four. The term founder was first used by my ancestor, Phineas Nigellus Black. That is his legacy to the history of the school. Gaunts had stopped attending Hogwarts long before he took over, so we should try Hogwarts four instead of Founders." Cordelia informed.
"Wands ready. Keep your eyes closed, Lia. I am immune to the basilisk's gaze because of my lord status." Tom quickly said.
Cordelia nodded.
'Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four." Tom hissed
Nothing happened.
"We are partially right." Cordelia said quickly, "Magic whirred in the stones near the statue's face."
"It could just be because we are speaking in parselmouth." Tom shook his head.
"Say something else in parseltongue then. Let us test it." Cordelia insisted.
"Open." Tom hissed.
"Nothing." Cordelia shook her head, but she had a glint in her eyes.
'Since it was the face, maybe the entrance is there, through the mouth." Tom wondered.
"Open your mouth, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Tom hissed and Cordelia doubled over in laughter.
"What?" Tom asked in genuine confusion.
"Open your mouth is used with babies and toddlers to try and feed them food, Tom. It is just hilarious to see you commanding Salazar Slytherin to do the same." Cordelia told him in between peals of laughter.
"All that is missing is baby faces and long notes. I mean, Ooopen yoourr mouth…Sleetherin, greataiste ooofff theee Hoawgwurts Foouurr."* Cordelia made weird faces and spoke with greater emphasis on the vowels and burst into laughter again.
"Okay, now that was hilarious and a little disturbing. I cannot deny that." Tom said sincerely trying to hide his leaking laughter, "But what else am I supposed to say?"
"Well, a mouth speaks and talks. Asking somebody to talk is informal, and not at all the Gaunt way. How about Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Cordelia just said off-handedly.
"If that is it, we should totally change it. It is a mouthful and a little disturbing." Tom shuddered.
"Well, what should we use? Tom Marvolo Riddle, the lost Scion of Slytherin!" Cordelia said dramatically.
"Haha. Very funny. I am not as narcissistic as those Gaunt nincompoops." Tom said in an annoyed tone.
"Yeah, you are just very smug about your hair and your eyes and oh! your voice. You could hear yourself talk for hours…" Cordelia teased.
"The thing I am most smug about is you, my dear. If I were you, I would watch what I was commenting on..." Tom shot back.
"Well, I am worth being smug about." Cordelia shot back.
"And my hair is not, and my voice is not and nor are my eyes." Tom said blandly.
"Never said they weren't. Have you heard Lyra Greengrass go on about your dreamy midnight blue eyes? She just keeps getting lost in them, you know." Cordelia mimicked his tone and she looked a little miffed.
Tom looked surprised and then a small smile crept into his face and he said with wonder and amusement, "You are jealous."
Cordelia snorted and was about to speak and deny it when Tom spoke again, "So, I am not the only one who gets jealous. And I thought I was doing something wrong. This is great." He looked relieved.
"Who were you jealous of?" Cordelia now looked curious and surprised by his admission, forgetting her denial.
"Errr..it is embarrassing." Tom began scratching his head, "I should not be jealous at all…There is no logic.." He shook his head in confusion.
Cordelia was looking at him thoughtfully, waiting for him to continue. Tom was currently looking away, staring at their shoes.
But then he looked at her, "You don't need to be though, jealous, I mean. Greengrass…well, there is never going to be anyone beside you Lia. She does not even matter!" He said with utmost sincerity.
"You silly, silly person" Cordelia murmured fondly, gently taking his hands into hers as they lightly began planting kisses on each other's faces.
"You don't have to be either. You will always be in my heart, nobody can even come closer." She shook her head and pressed her forehead against his.
"Now, now, don't get so sentimental brats. No weeping in my home. I mean you were having a perfectly nice and entertaining lover's spat and then you had to go and make it mushy…so disappointing!" A hissing noise interrupted the moment.
Both Tom and Cordelia froze. Tom had immediately and instinctively covered Cordelia's eyes, "Don't look! It is the basilisk."
Cordelia seemed perfectly content in obeying him about that but her hands did tightly fist his shirt, lest he move away from her and closer to the basilisk.
He turned his face slowly to face the giant serpent. She was huge, really huge. Tom barely registered her length or width because he was too busy staring at her big mouth. She could swallow Cordelia and him both in a single gulp. Probably, an addition of couple more humans could actually form a proper mouthful.
And she seemed to be grinning, while her outer fangs glistened in the eerie light of the Chamber.
Tom swallowed heavily; he was so scared about Cordelia.
But then he remembered that he was supposed to be the snake's master. He regained his composure and addressed the snake, "Lady Erin, it is a great honor to finally see you."
"And you know my proper name! How thrilling? Even Salazar had begun calling me Ursula towards his last days, mistaking me for his wife's dead familiar." She looked pleased.
"Surely, the others called you by your preferred name." Tom blinked in confusion.
"I doubt the Gaunts looked at her with the same level of respect and gave her autonomy as we do, Tom. She was just a big snake and an ingredient provider for them." Cordelia was the one who replied. Her eyes were still tightly shut.
"Ah, a master with a smart mate." If you could cackle while hissing, that is what the basilisk seemed to be doing.
Cordelia and Tom both froze a little at the mate.
Sure, Tom loved her but his mind was yet to wander off to mating.
He decisively shut his thoughts behind a mental barrier and looked at the basilisk again.
"You can open your eyes, my lady. I sense the essence of mother inside you. My gaze cannot harm you." The basilisk informed Cordelia graciously.
"No…" Tom said urgently, "I would rather not test it, my apologies Erin. Until I am sure that it is absolutely safe…" He trailed off.
Erin looked offended. But Tom did not care, Cordelia was more important.
He could also sense Cordelia's irritation, her lips were pressed into a thin line but so far, she had respected his fear and kept her eyes tightly shut without any protest.
" You are very protective of her. An admirable trait, but perhaps I could convince you of the safety I offer to her. I can willingly turn off my gaze, otherwise, I would never be able to look at anything other than my masters. Conjure an animal and I shall look at it directly without harming it." Erin proposed, whilst closing her eyes.
Tom still looked dubiously at the snake but summoned a rat from the pipes, "You can look." He gently said.
Erin did just that and the rat lay on the floor, still squirming, very much alive.
"Can I open my eyes now?" Cordelia's impatient voice filled Tom's ears.
He still looked unsure but reluctantly said yes.
Cordelia opened her eyes and boldly looked right into Erin's eyes. Nothing happened.
Tom's shoulders loosened as he pulled Cordelia into a hug in relief, placing her head on the crook of his neck.
"You are such a worrywart." She murmured, fiddling with the buttons at his collar but not moving away.
Erin wheezed with laughter and Cordelia gave her an amused look. She separated from Tom and dropped a curtsey to the basilisk, "It is nice to meet you Erin. I am Cordelia Faye Black, from the House of Black and Malfoy and Heiress to the House of Black."
"Well met, heiress Black," The basilisk lowered her head in acknowledgment.
"Well met indeed!" Tom muttered.
"And you have not introduced yourself, Lord of Slytherin. Would you prefer your title over your name?" Cordelia jested.
"Oh Morgana, no." Tom cursed.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord of the House of Slytherin." Tom gave a small nod.
"Not a Gaunt then?" Erin said carefully.
Tom and Cordelia shared a look, and Tom finally told, "We are not sure. I am an orphan and I was abandoned in the muggle world after my mother died. I was certainly not raised by them and I do not share their values."
"Well, you must have a blood tie to them. That is the only way you would have gotten Slytherin's blood." Erin said thoughtfully, "But it is a good thing that you were raised away from them, lunatics, the whole lot of them; killed students of the school for fun." Erin's tone had gone dark towards the end.
"You mean muggleborns?" Cordelia asked.
"You don't call them mudblood. That is a good sign. But I guess you would not have gotten the Lordship if you had animosity towards them." Erin informed.
"Did they …did they order you to kill the children?" Cordelia asked warily.
"Heiress Black, I would not lie. I have killed children. Even though Gaunts never inherited the Slytherin title, I respected them initially because of the sheer closeness of their blood. That was a mistake. They used compulsions and manipulations to make me do as they pleased and passed the reign of me to future generations. I cannot say that it was against my will; because I could have fought the compulsions…I am still surprised that I woke up lucid this time. " Erin said in a tone of defeat.
"Time may have played a role, Erin. The last time a Gaunt walked the halls of Hogwarts was 300 years ago." Tom informed.
"May I examine your eyes, Lady Erin? It will not hurt. You just need to bend a little." Cordelia asked hesitantly.
Erin leveled her head to the floor.
"There are faint signs of being under imperious curse on multiple occasions by multiple signatures. And you have a compulsion rune on your head, makes you rabid and bloodthirsty, so much that you cannot think about anything else but killing everything in your path. The magic of the rune broke recently." Cordelia said rapidly as she swiftly examined the giant reptile.
"Maybe that has something to do with my Lordship. There was a strong pulse because somebody ascended the lordship after a long time…" Tom suggested.
"That might be it." Cordelia spoke still looking at the carved rune.
Erin looked angry but also overwhelmed.
"Would you mind if I do some healing? The carving is slowly healing as the magic powering it has been lost but it can turn septic and well, it must be hurting you. I can also erase the abrasions that have developed because of too much mind control and compulsion. " Cordelia asked.
Erin blinked and nodded her huge head.
Cordelia called forth a pure ball of magic silently and wandlessly and send it inside Erin.
The rune healed until all that remained was a faint scar.
"I am afraid that I won't be able to do anything about the scar. It is a cursed scar, difficult to be rid of. It won't even go away when you shed your skin. Maybe, once I have my majority, I will be able to do something." Cordelia apologized.
"That is alright Magicae. You must not stretch yourself unless you have access to all your channels." Erin advised.
"Do all magicae speak Parseltongue?" Tom asked curiously.
When the basilisk gave him a curious look, he explained, "You were not surprised that Lia was a parselmouth and you sensed that she was a magicae, so I just wondered."
"Why would I be surprised? Slytherin is not the only line that could speak Parseltongue. Serpens could, so could Gwenyth, and Meander and Ollots." Erin informed, "I take it that they are all lost lines now?"
"They are dead or lost lines. I have heard of Serpens. A previous magicae was from the same line and I got the family vaults of the line. But others have faded away from living memory." Cordelia informed and looked at Tom, who also remembered the information.
"I knew her, the magicae you speak of." Erin nodded, "It is strange, the line of Slytherin must be truly blessed."
"I don't understand." Tom asked in confusion.
"Well, the children of magic from the line of Serpens were promised to Slytherin. The magicae from the house of Serpens I speak of was Slytherin's first wife. To think that you have found a magicae from another line and are so close to her? How utterly auspicious?" Erin said happily.
Close was an understatement according to Tom but he did not say anything.
'So, Slytherin married a magicae…" Tom questioned.
"Yes, don't ask me details though. I scarcely remember how my master looked, much less anything else." Erin replied.
"Well, it has been thousand years…Images scarcely last decades when you do not rehearse them even in the larger human brains. Though, if you see the image, it would appear familiar. And you would remember factual information much better…" Cordelia muttered.
"I take it that the statue over there is not Slytherin?" Tom asked in a tone laced with amusement.
"No, that is the eldest Gaunt who married into the line of Slytherin. More like tricked the descendants of Slytherin into giving her hand to him, made her his slave of sorts, made her give him heirs and then sacrificed her in black magic to gain the ability of parseltongue for himself and then killed all the other Slytherins. I had hoped that one of them escaped. I have waited too long for a true scion of Slytherin. Not all Gaunts were bad; some of them saw their family for the monstrosity but were quickly silenced through murder or manipulation. The last master who locked me inside loved to boast about the achievements of his line." Erin said sadly.
Cordelia had raised her brows and Tom was too busy looking at her reaction to react.
"Well, blood politics has always been fucked up. You will find skeletons in every family's closet. They certainly took the blood mania and raised it to an exponentially high megalomania. It does not excuse what Gaunts did but it certainly make them stand out less." Cordelia said easily.
Tom looked at Cordelia and they talked in their minds briefly before he turned to address Erin, "You are free, Erin. We are not going to compel or order you to do harm. We would ask you to remain in these chambers though. It is not safe for a basilisk outside. We will try and make arrangements. I have not yet accessed Slytherin estate and when I do within a few months, you could probably move there if you wish to. The Forbidden Forest will be too open and revealing. I know the hibernation spell as well. If you wish to sleep until then, we could do that too."
"There is another option. It will take a bit of time to do it though. I can enter your nest, cast an undetectable extension charm and mimic a habitat that you would prefer. We could even have a mix, a shelter and free space of sorts. But I will need some time to come up with spellwork that would suit it best."
"You can roam about in the antechamber until then. One of us will come visit you every day or in specific periods. What is your food cycle like? How often do you need to eat? We do not know much about your metabolism. We do have an idea since we have an Apophis in our care but she is much smaller than you. We will bring her down soon to visit so that you have some company. But could you tell us more about your needs…" Tom nodded at Cordelia's idea and requested the serpent and Cordelia gave her an encouraging nod.
Erin looked startled by their request but she hesitantly began hissing.
Cordelia's POV
Abraxas was quietly writing down his transfiguration essay in the corner of Library. Cordelia had been searching him for quite a bit. Her one month worth of court proceedings had left her bereft of any light and emotional talk with all of her cousins. Sure, they had met, talked and discussed stuff but it was all business. They rarely had room for personal conversations. Even the banter had focused so much on court that Cordelia was feeling distanced from everyone but Tom.
She had been catching up with all of them slowly. But today, she was searching for Abraxas with a purpose.
She approached his table and settled down, "Am I disturbing you?"
Abraxas looked up with a little surprised expression but it smoothed over to a fond yet tired smile, "Of course not, Corrie!"
"Is there a particular reason why you have left the warmth of the fires of dungeons to come in this academically inclined yet freezing space?" Cordelia asked pointedly.
"The common room was noisy." He automatically replied.
"At 8 in morning over a winter weekend? Even Tom is lazing about right now and he is very active in mornings." Cordelia asked shrewdly.
Abraxas blinked in confusion. Cordelia did not blame him. She rarely pushed her cousins this directly. Usually, her methods were more underhanded and manipulative, so much that her cousins were none the wiser. For her, to ask such direct questions, it was a little strange.
But she did not have the luxury of time; she knew that Abraxas was hurting.
"I do not understand." Abraxas was genuinely confused.
"I know this trip is because of Aunt Lysa. It is natural for you to remember your mother on her birthday but you should not alienate yourself from people who care for you." Cordelia said directly.
"I am not upset Corrie. You and I are both aware of how motherly my mother was. She rarely remembered my existence, too busy in her Yaxley family." Abraxas shot sarcastically and detachedly.
Cordelia stayed silent, not commenting at all, just giving him a penetrative look.
"I was never enough for her. My father was never enough for her. On the best days, she ignored me. On the worst days, I was lambasted by how I destroyed her life, her body. And I understand her too, she was , well, the marriage was a contractual one, she never came to love father. He was too open-minded for her and I get that they did not get along and maybe she had never wanted me. But I wish she had not been so open in her hatred for me. So, no, I do not miss her." Abraxas said dejectedly, emotions swimming in his eyes.
"I never said you were missing her Abraxas. I know what went down, I know how she was with you, I know why mother constantly felt the need to mother you, why I still feel the need to mother you. I will also not insult the care and love your father gives you by saying that you cannot live without your mother's affection. But she did play a hand in bringing you to this world, you did live with her for few years, you did hope that she would show affection for you, you did receive hateful looks from her and even on her dying bed she did ask you to take your grief ridden face elsewhere. You are allowed to remember the fact that that woman bereft you of affection. You are allowed to remember and miss the mother that you wished you had. And it is perfectly normal for you to feel angry and be angry at her. Sure, she might not have wanted the marriage, or you. Her beef was with her family who arranged the marriage, and possibly Uncle Rion, not with you. You were faultless. And yes, she might not have been able to be affectionate towards you in those circumstances but she had no right to be hateful either. You were an innocent child, regardless of her preference about procreation. And she was perfectly happy, I would have understood if there was post-partum melancholia or anything. But she just chose to be hateful. The situation might have been unfair to her but she had no right to make it unfair for you. " Cordelia said softly, holding his hand comfortingly.
Abraxas did not say anything, he just moved so that he had easy access to Cordelia and hugged her with all his worth.
"I am fortunate to have you. All of your family is fortunate to have you. Don't ever forget that!' He said fiercely.
"You are not alone you know," Cordelia said, ignoring his comment in words but tightening her hold on him.
"I know I have you." He murmured.
"That you do, but I meant in your struggle. Uncle Arty and Aunt Ariel are hardly around. Uncle Polly and Cassy are too busy with Cygnus, their son to pay attention to the older daughters. That apathy does not equate to the hate you went through but it is similar. Even Tom, he was …."She stopped there, paused for a bit and continued, "I know you have come to see Father and Mother as the ideal parents but there are other broken scenarios in our circle itself. And none of them readily talk about it, just like you. I am not suggesting that you pry, but sometimes, talking through your insecurities help. It has certainly helped me whenever I have confided in Tom. It might also help you to talk to uncle Rion. You had a hateful mother and he had a hateful wife. You were too young to understand certain things but I am sure that her cruelty grated him more, especially when he saw her hating his beloved son."
"Father tried to get me to talk, after her death. I stormed off, remember, the time I hid in those pinecones and you tracked me down using those peacocks. He never spoke about it again." Abraxas said solemnly.
"Maybe he was scared Abe, scared for you and of you. Uncle Rion loves you; he could not possibly want to do a thing that drove you away from him. You did not see how sad he was that day…I had lied, I was not chasing peacocks, I was looking for you because Uncle Rion looked so sad. You know me, I was such a nosy child, never could see anyone unhappy, and had to put my foot where it did not belong." Cordelia said forcefully. The last bit brought a ghost of a smile at Abraxas' face.
"I still cannot believe that people thought you were an angel…you put Alphard to shame with your deeds." Abraxas murmured.
"I take offence. I never got caught and I always looked the part of a little angel, all innocent and smiling. Alphard can never pull that." Cordelia sniffed her nose and delicately checked her nails, and batted her eyelashes at him.
That did it, Abraxas broke into a small laugh. And Cordelia joined him with her gentle, musical laughter.
"Don't tell Tom I did that. He won't ever let me live that down." She said seriously a moment later.
"Oh yes, I make it my business to tell Tom about the embarrassing things that you have done up till now." Abraxas said sarcastically, "That would go really well, Heir Slytherin, did you know that heiress Black likes to bat her eyelashes at men…" He imitated and then snickered as if he could not believe the ridiculousness of it.
"I bat my eyelashes at him, all the time. He knows." Cordelia said wryly.
Abraxas gave her a look, "You bat your eyelashes at him?"
"What can I say? It has an uplifting effect on morbid men." Cordelia said pompously.
Abraxas chuckled lightly at that.
"Breakfast?" She smiled at his smiling eyes.
"Lead on, my lady…" Abraxas gestured.
This is officially the longest update ever. I was trying to upheld the promise that I had made about the longer chapters but well, it spiraled out of control...I did not want to cut the essence of the chapter so I am publishing it intact.
Please leave me reviews.
Next update: Christmas !
