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 Marauder'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. 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.

4) THE RATING OF THE FIC HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 'M' because of slightly more graphic descriptions of violence. It is mostly a safety measure and does not contain anything triggering yet. Future updates will carry warnings of triggers, if any emerge in the course of the story.


For your references

"Talk"

"Parseltongue"


Previously

Tom and Cordelia decided on a courtship ritual and Tom gives her the first present, four warding stones cut from amethyst into shapes of rose buds with appropriate runes. As they both tease each other, Tom brings up Lyra Greengrass as a retort to Cordelia. It does work but annoys Cordelia more than Tom anticipated. Suddenly, Cordelia has a long mental breakdown. Tom calms her down by telling her stories about the four founders that he has read in Salazar's journals. They also discover that Cordelia's breakdown was because she blocked memories from early magicae.

Evelyn details her family history and her observation of magical world including her disenchantment from Dumbledore. She also deliberately keeps a low head in the magical world. Evelyn describes her impression of Cordelia and Tom and how their political skill and word weaving was highly commendable in the open court meeting that addressed Carrow's accident. Evelyn is joined by Cordelia and Abraxas on Slytherin table who go on to invite her to an inter-house project for the annual showcase. She accepts, Cordelia leaves and Evelyn has a small conversation with Abraxas where he lists all invitees. Tom arrives on the table and informs Abraxas and Evelyn that Dumbledore was trying to confirm Cordelia and his whereabouts when Carrow accident happened.


Chapter 32

Grapevine, Ovid and Black Arts

Evelyn's POV

Once Tom, Abraxas and Evelyn decided to seek out Cordelia and Sebastian, she had expected that Cordelia would not get as hassled about Dumbledore as Tom was.

But she was. Not for herself but she had grown pensive and had quickly bombarded questions about where Tom had been and had did some really advanced magic to rule out any curse or spell put on him and Tom had to bodily stop her from all the rambling and cursing she was doing.

Charlie (who was also there) and Sebastian looked mighty shocked at Cordelia's colorful vocabulary and were also quite concerned about the news about Dumbledore's plotting. Abraxas simply watched the proceedings as presumably, he had been witness to more than this display of their trust and their quirky relationship in the Slytherin common rooms.

Evelyn had been scandalized with Cordelia's cursing but she put it aside quickly, more concerned about what Dumbledore would do.

"I am more worried about you." Tom simply said once he managed to stop Cordelia's panic filled spree.

"Well, I am more worried about you." Cordelia shot back with her folded arms and an unhappy frown.

"What is your schedule?" Charlie had asked, interrupting what looked like a full scale argument about who was entitled more worry.

Those two were really something.

When the three Slytherins briefed them, then Charlie, Abraxas and Sebastian had decidedly planned a security detail of sorts with Evelyn offering insights in between and mostly distracting Cordelia and Tom with niche questions about the project.

So, Tom and Cordelia had escorts to every class. For the project invitations, Cordelia had been accompanied by Abraxas and Titania. Students (at the behest of Dumbledore) might have objected to non-prefects in the infirmary so Charlie and Sebastian had quickly offered to sit with her for her couple of hours.

Cordelia was going to be relieved by Tofty, who was taking over the infirmary until next morning. As the brigade of escorts had predicted, Dumbledore had accompanied Tofty, smiling his smile.

Though, the smile noticeably shrunk itself when he saw Charlie and Sebastian with her. He did want to speak to her from the impression he gave but Charlie and Sebastian engaged him and Tofty in questions about some really complicated plant related transfiguration. She was sure the query was the product of Cordelia's mind and that the witch had simply chosen a complicated topic purposely so Sebastian and Charlie did not have to feign their massive confusion. After all, deception was not really Charlie or Sebastian's strong suit. The four wizards had launched into a long explanation about plants, sentience and transference of magical properties, and Dorea and Walburga had arrived in the meantime and whisked Cordelia away before Dumbledore even registered anything.

Of course, Evelyn heard all this next day when few members of the knights met before the project meeting after an early lunch to discuss how to address the problem.

Apart from Cordelia, Tom, Abraxas, Orion, Dorea, Charlie, Sebastian, Walburga, Lucretia, Burke, Alphard, Anastius, Titania and Evelyn, dubbed the 'inner circle' by a lot of Hogwarts, a few other people slowly joined them.

Slytherin had just one more addition: Luther Pritchard. He was quite smart and got on well with Charlie, Dorea and Burke.

Gryfinddor had Jade Marks, the female representative of Muggleborns, Penelope Gambol and King.

King was a steadfast friend of Sebastian and Charlie. Gambol was from a light family and she was exceedingly sharp. Evelyn knew that one of the reasons for choosing Jade as the muggleborn representative had been because she did not listen much to Dumbledore despite being a muggleborn and had been quite indignant at Dumbledore's antics at the match when Charlie got injured.

Ravenclaw had Gore, Rowle and Shafiq. All of them were from noble families where Dumbledore's influence was still negligible or shaky. The house of Shafiq was constantly held on the outskirts of the debates of light and dark, simply because they did not conform to light or dark ideologies. Rowles were neutral to dark and Gores were light to neutral. The men were quieter than Gore's bold streak, which was also not surprising, considering Gore was traditionally a Gryffindor family with a few occasional exceptions.

Hufflepuff had Ogden, Bones and Lois Applebee. Ogden was a good person. Bones was very fair, if a little traditional. Applebee was very smart and a very keen researcher. Evelyn had talked to her in the first icebreaker of Inquest.

Slytherin had numbers but that was not surprising, nor unwarranted, simply because Tom and Cordelia had started the base from Slytherin. Cordelia was sure that the numbers of other houses will gradually swell. And this seemed like a very good start to Evelyn.

"We need opinions and if possible, ideas." It was Burke who started.

"All of you attended day before yesterday's meeting, so I believe that you are aware of entire proceedings of Carrow debacle and the information Cordelia and Riddle gave away. If you were not present in yesterday's dinner when the official briefing was made, then it gave the following additional information: Carrow was attacked by 5 different plants and the main injury occurred because of a messed up spell. The Auror in charge for the particular case is Fortescue though Auror Head Bob Ogden personally made a visit for the inspection of Greenhouse 3 as well. The school gave away the charge of Albert to Lord Carrow and he is now under the healing guardianship of his father who has decided not to disclose where, how or who is treating him. Questions badgering them about those details will not be answered. Any safety related query is to be directed to House Heads, and then escalated until it meets a satisfactory response."

There was a nodding and general agreement from the gathering.

"The issue at hand is related but a little different. Some of you are already aware with some part of it as you helped us plan a sort of security detail.' Burke said after that, nodding at Shafiq, Rowle, and King.

He received nods from them.

"The thing is we have strong reasons to believe that Dumbledore has slyly tried to get confirmed whereabouts of Cordelia and Riddle for Thursday."

"We can act as witnesses." Bones said immediately.

"We appreciate and thank you for that gesture Heir Bones, but that it not the entire issue. Dumbledore was investigating independently. The Aurors are not looking at us at all." Tom supplied.

"Not again." Gore groaned, "Can't Dumbledore keep his nose out of something for once in his life."

There were chuckles all around and smiles broke across a lot of faces.

"So, the thing is that we have the alibi and I am sure that nobody would mind being witness to assure officials of that. That is not the issue. There is no case against both of them. The thing is that Dumbledore is snooping around, quite clandestinely. It is going to start rumors and the grapevine of Hogwarts will pick it up. While the students will mostly not buy the word, except those who are trying to peg Carrow's incident as an attack, the chances are that it will affect public opinion. Ill public opinion is not our concern. That is a given when you hold a position of power, but we are afraid that the rumors might be insidious and that some people might try to make Tom and Cordelia pay. While we have taken a lot of security measures since the previous attacks, we are a bit wary still. Also, it is not easy to maintain stringent security all the time and it adds on to the stress of anticipating an attack on everybody who gets roped in. And of course, there is no guarantee and considering Tom and Cordelia have already been targeted…" Abraxas shook his head to convey his worry, "So, we would prefer if the version on the grapevine is quelled before it catches too much attention." Abraxas swiftly told their position and the issue.

"So, you need ideas on how to quell the grapevine." Ogden surmised.

There were nods from the Slytherin.

"Couldn't we hold another meeting?" Applebee asked.

"No, that will just fuel the rumors," King replied and a few Slytherins, Rowle and Shafiq nodded.

"Ms. Applebee, so the thing with grapevine is that it has a life of its own. If we meet the rumors head on, we are giving away the fact that the rumors trouble us. Trying to clarify troubling rumors can have two reasons: one the rumors are true and two, they are vicious lies. Considering that two Slytherin are the ones trying to clarify rumors, some people will attribute that to trying to hide the truth. No, the clarification cannot come from Tom and Cordelia unless they are exactly asked that question openly," Anastius explained.

"People will think that they are trying too hard to fight rumors that are too weak to affect them in any way. So, why waste the effort to curb such rumors?" Rowle added.

"And while all of us have the political acumen to realize what Dumbledore's action might result in, most people do not have that kind of foresight. Even if we try to logically grapple Dumbledore's motive in a public setting, people will vilify it as paranoia on our behalf and slander to his 'greatness'." Cordelia supplied.

"True…" Bones mused.

"We could funnel the rumor mill indirectly. Alphard and Anastius are very active." Ogden pointed out.

"We cannot afford that directness. We need to be subtle. Again, we need to wait till a student asks Zabini or young Black. Otherwise, we are giving away our game." Gore pointed out.

Cordelia gave a very thoughtful look to Gore.

"What?" Gore asked defensively.

"You gave me an idea," Cordelia mused.

"Morgana save us!" Walburga muttered.

Dorea raised a brow at that.

"Oh, don't look at me. Don't you remember all her ideas?" Walburga pointed out quite adamantly,

"I agree that they are a bit…off the book. But they always work." Orion pointed out.

"For her anyway," Alphard added.

"Will someone enlighten the rest of us?" Charlie asked quite pointedly.

"Well, where do I start?" Abraxas asked rhetorically.

"Alright, alright, you can a family reminiscence session later. I believe we had an issue at hand and Heiress Black had an idea." Pritchard pointed out, "And considering the fact that she managed to put Dumbledore on probation within 3 months of her stint at Hogwarts and convinced people about Binns' unsuitability, I would like to listen."

"Thank you," Tom and Cordelia said at the same time with a relieved expression from Tom and a pointed look of displeasure to her family from Cordelia.

Abraxas raised his hands in surrender and apology.

"As Trinity said, we cannot engage directly with the students." Cordelia said simply.

The rest of the people gave blank looks, waiting for more.

"You mean to engage with someone who is not a student, but who?" Burke was the one who caught on the quickest.

"We could approach Uncle but if it is just rumors, then I am not sure…" Ogden mused.

"Approaching Board of Governers is too flashy, we will come out looking like whiners, especially considering we are Slytherins," Dorea pointed out.

"Oh, I am thinking of something even flashier." Cordelia admitted, clearly enjoying this but before she could say anything else, she was interrupted with a stern look from Abraxas.

"No…Absolutely not," Abraxas was the first one to realize her idea.

"You cannot be serious." Tom was a very close second but he merely gave her an imploring look, and quickly transformed it to thoughtful as he began to consider it.

"We are not telepathic." Gore said wryly.

"We cannot engage directly with students, aurors or Governors. We can engage with Dumbledore. A direct confrontation where…" Cordelia trailed off because of another interruption.

"That is very bold of you." Sebastian pointed out with trepidation.

"Why, thank you?" She merely gave him an annoyed look, clearly put off by the interruptions.

"It was not a compliment." Charlie said with a suffering sigh not noticing her expression, and rubbing his temple "Like Tom said, being courageous is different than being stupid."

"You have not even heard her full idea yet." Penelope Gambol pointed out.

"You Gambols just like chaos." Burke scoffed.

"How about I make your face a little chaotic?" Penelope said sweetly but her eyes gave away the danger.

"This is madness…I thought Slytherins were cautious…"Bones shook his head.

"And I thought badgers are patient, Heir Bones. She has not even completed her thought yet and you have already decreed it to be foolhardy," Titania interjected.

"Oh, you cannot be serious. This is not a feminine cause or something. For Morgana's sake, Titania, think!" Burke turned on her.

"But she is right. Cordelia has not completed her thought yet and all of you began interjecting already making assumptions," Applebee pointed out.

"Applebee, I don't know which world you live in but Dumbledore is dangerous. Gryffindors have been a first-hand witness to how manipulative that man can be. He has too many students brainwashed. Black and Riddle's silvertongue will not help them at all. Students will turn on them immediately." King reprimanded.

"I don't think Lia plans to do it in front of students." Tom defended and gave a questioning look to Cordelia.

"No, let them fight a little more. I am used to men thinking that they know better than me simply because they are men." Cordelia quipped, but her expression gave away her ire.

"Tom defended you," Abraxas pointed out weakly.

"How clever of you to point that out, Abraxas? I simply did not see. Would you like to fix my eyes in accordance to yours; apart from everything else everyone pointed out is wrong?" Cordelia shot back mercilessly with a glare and Abraxas flinched. He probably had not been on the other side of Cordelia's temper ever before.

Titania and Gore and even Applebee had triumph in their eyes while the men looked visibly uncomfortable, bewildered and even a little afraid. Cordelia's anger could be very frightening and all of them knew that.

"Corrie, they are simply worried." Dorea said lightly, attempting to appease the furious witch.

Cordelia's icy stare did not soften and Dorea found herself to be the recipient of that same look but Cordelia did not say anything.

"Being worried is a different matter altogether but I wonder if you and they would have worded the words more carefully if it was me who suggested the confrontation Dorea." Tom sided with Cordelia.

"You have never been as foolhardy as Cordelia, Tom," Abraxas protested.

"Haven't I? I suppose it was a different boy who challenged 7th years to a duel in his first year." Tom shot back.

"But you won," Orion protested.

"What makes you so sure that she won't?" Tom shot back, his eyes blazing.

No, he did not like it at all when people underestimated Cordelia.

There was an eerie silence as everyone realized the truth of their words and recognized the presence of their gendered rationale and arguments. Tom and Cordelia had identified, pointed out and fought against multiple of them when the court was being formalized, so all of them were somewhat familiar with them. While most people still struggled in realizations when they were speaking, the presence was clear as day when Tom and Cordelia finally and utterly lost their tempers over it. Evelyn considered just how salvageable the situation was.

Abraxas looked like he wanted to apologize but he was probably struggling with words. No, he was not used to Cordelia's anger being directed at him.

It was Cordelia who broke the silence.

"While I do tend to be somewhat impulsive, a shred bit more than Tom, I will not put him in danger because I was being stupid. All of you know me better than that." Cordelia said after some time.

"And you also know that Tom would not agree to something he was sure will not be safe for me. If you do not trust my capabilities of handling danger, trust our protective instincts towards each other." She said shortly, fixing them with a look and then looking away, fiddling with some sort of thick, gold chain on her neck as her other palm found Tom's.

Well, Cordelia's new statements were true as well. The safest route was an apology but she knew that nobles did not give that away easily in such a public setting. So, another uncomfortable silence it was.

"I like your idea." Shafiq spoke for the first time in his quiet, deep baritone. He had very small traces of a Middle Eastern accent. Evelyn could not exactly place it in that demographic, but she thought it was Persian or rather Iranian as the muggle diplomatic envoys insisted in the past few years.

There was a collective noise of surprise and shock from people. Shafiqs were notoriously very cautious and prudent.

Cordelia and Tom looked at him curiously, expecting him to elaborate.

But it was nothing compared to the looks Shafiq got from the rest of the room. Evelyn supposed that everyone was surprised and rather taken aback to see a man of Middle Eastern descent to speak for a women's idea or agency. (See Author note)

"Stop staring, he is not some spectacle," Tom said in a quite irritated tone.

"It is alright, Lord Slytherin." Shafiq nodded graciously, "But coming back to your idea, Heiress Black. You intend to confront Dumbledore in the presence of other teachers, yes?" He gave her a questioning look.

Now, people were surprised and held looks of wonder as they considered that possibility.

Cordelia immediately nodded, "We are in the position of danger, when and where Dumbledore influences opinions. Students are out because of that and as people said, it is not a wise idea to invite Governors or Aurors to clarify things. The only teacher who is a little bit more invested in staying in good graces of Dumbledore is Dippet, but even he would favor us, the Lord of Slytherin and Heiress of House Black over anybody.

"Besides, I planned to do the confrontation in staff room where Dippet would be absent, but everyone else will be present. Merrythought and Tofty will demolish Dumbledore for even thinking that Tom and I are guilty. They are not only fond of us but they are also quite logical and know that we cannot have orchestrated the random series of events. Foster, Monroe and Hewl will demolish him by adding on to the academic arguments about how we could not have done it. We also had Garrison, Kettleburn and Slughorn on Thursday so they will immediately vouch for us.

"Slughorn may not usually stand up for Slytherins in front of Dumbledore but this would a rare chance where he can triumph over him, with the aid of almost all faculty. He would not want to lose the influence that Tom and I could potentially give him. Dumbledore might be powerful but he does not have the finances or the automatic political reach that we have.

"Warrick hates conflicts and will likely stay out of it. Geoffrey might side with Dumbledore, considering his pro muggle ways but considering that Dumbeldore is pinning pro muggleborns Tom and Cordelia against name-calling, malicious Carrow, it could go either ways. Murphy is already aware that Dumbledore can be quite negligent and narrow with his world view. Hopkirk does not sit in staffroom and Madam Underhill is at Mungo's and usually sits in the infirmary. But if she was present, she would side with me and Tom too." Cordelia briefed out all the reactions.

People looked thoughtful and more or less amenable to her idea now.

"But how will you confront him? What will you say to create a confrontation?" Pritchard asked, merely curious. His questions also served as fine tuning of Cordelia's strategy.

"Keeping it simple. We ensure a time where everyone would be present. Tom and I go and ask for a word with him. When he tries to step out separately, we say that our guardians have advised us against a private word. We simply came to speak to him because we have heard that he wanted to confirm our whereabouts on Thursday.

"I will also innocently ask if he had accompanied Tofty yesterday to infirmary if he wished to speak with him and apologize for leaving before he could. We will add that we had classes with such and such Professors and spent the rest of time in meals or library. Meals can be confirmed by more Professors but we have a written affidavit from Heir A, B and C to vouch for our presence in meals and library regardless and we hope it satisfies him." Cordelia quickly said.

"And the Professors will do the rest. Simple and effective," Shafiq nodded thoughtfully in agreement.

"Ghosts are bound to talk about an argument in the staff room," Jade Marks said. Sebastian and Anastius nodded their assent.

"Slughorn won't be able to remain silent about besting Dumbledore," Titania quickly pointed out. Abraxas and Orion eagerly nodded while Pritchard gave a single solemn nod.

"Dumbledore is smarter. He is going to deny everything and then what will you do? What source will you pin the rumors on?" Burke still disagreed. King agreed with him.

"Actually that denial might work in our favor. If he denies it, I am simply going to say that then he should not have any problems clarifying it with the student body. He should be eager to do it because malicious people are using his name unjustly to slander us. We cannot have that in a school. Lia and I were already attacked and are already wary and there is an interfering third party that is trying to nefariously use the disagreement to further their agenda," Tom quickly said.

"And while we had disagreements with Dumbledore, both parties are being mature about it and not using nefarious means to gain advantage. That clarifies our position for putting him on the spot because we want openness and are not attacking Dumbledore on the sly and it creates pressure on Dumbledore to do the mature thing and announce that people are taking untoward advantage of his disagreements with us. Of course, this also means that we are not the ones who try to talk to students so nobody can target us," Cordelia added.

"Now that is a sound plan." Charlie nodded in agreement.

"And if you first act a bit hurt about Dumbledore's distrust and then make no objections to the fact that Dumbledore is the victim along with both of you of a malingering third party then…. Oh this is going to be good…" Gore clapped her hands in anticipation.

"And then the Professors can insist that Dumbledore regain control…And if Dumbledore publically announces that people are using his name unjustly then all his supporters are going to be more outraged about Dumbledore being wronged than putting their energy on a quest to pin it on both of you. In fact, they might be even grateful for your maturity to talk to Dumbledore before taking direct actions against Dumbledore. I don't see any hitches…" Rowle agreed.

"People with the keen sense of misguided justice will be quelled but what about those who are trying to pin it as an attack?" Bones asked.

"They are going to attempt to peg the incidents as an attack regardless. You think Avery, Lestrange and Parkinson will not try to start rumors even if the Dumbledore angle did not happen." Applebee pointed out and Pritchard nodded to show his agreement.

"And this would help us counter the propaganda from the Carrow party too. If people think that a third party is trying to plant insidious rumors and the Professors confirm the existence of such a third party, then people are going to be wary about whose word should they trust, so people are not going to trust any word but official for this incident because everything can be potentially false. The official word said that there was no attack, so any conspiracy theory about it being one goes out and anything that confirms that it was an accident would be more accepted," Walburga added.

"Yes, because I do want people to believe that it was actually a 'drunken' accident, if you know what I mean…"Gore said, emphasizing 'drunken' as she fiddled with a ring in her hand.

People controlled their laughter and amusement.

"What? It is the truth! A toddler would have recognized the signs," Gore rolled her eyes, unabashedly.

"I sometimes wonder how she landed in Ravenclaw. With her art in wording things, she would fit right beside Heir Potter…" Burke muttered under his breath to Abraxas, whose lips twitched in response. Evelyn herself fought the involuntary giggle that was building in her chest.

By the looks of things, Cordelia and Tom had not missed Burke's words too because they rolled their eyes together in a perfect synchronization.

"Your words hold merit, Ms. Gore. And Walburga is right. While it would counter rumors that deem it an attack, it might just give legitimacy to accounts that explain why and how the 'accidents' occurred. Besides, Dumbledore is only going to quell the rumors that are rampant around both Cordelia and I in regards to Dumbledore himself or in regards to Carrow ; and any official statement would stand as before, " Tom agreed.

"And if need be, I can get Uncle to give a statement to Daily Prophet that says that Hogwarts students were apprised of the basic facts by the Headmaster as well as the school court. So, people will regard the court version to be official as well." Ogden offered.

"I do not think we will need that. Cordelia already mentioned that you, Bagnold, Tom and she got the version from DMLE and Professors. We can simply request Dippet or even Dumbledore to announce that masses should not believe anything that does not come from official sources, that is, the court meeting or the announcement. I do not think we should bother Aurors for a small school scale power shuffle," Abraxas suggested and several people nodded.

"That would be better than involving media or Aurors. If you would not mind roping yourself Tiberius, then perhaps Riddle and Black can also offer that the contents of the court meeting can be confirmed by you, or even the rest of the prefects present in the court meeting can confirm it if Professors need that assurance. After all, you never gave more information or suggestive information. Avery did that on her own," Gambol suggested with rolling eyes.

There was a murmur of agreement from all over.

Cordelia gave Evelyn a questioning look, clearly asking her opinion because she had remained silent.

Evelyn gave a nod. It was a sound plan.


Tom's POV

The meeting in regards to Dumbledore had been successful. After everyone agreed, Ogden and 7th year prefects merely had to supply the fact that the staff was meeting in regards to creating a class policy against drunkards in the staffroom on that very day. Dippet had shrugged himself off of that and Dumbledore was in charge. The meeting was from 6 to 7, so Tom and Cordelia should target reaching the staffroom some 20 minutes before 7.

When all of that went away, they barely had 10 minutes to 2, where the meeting regarding the project was happening. They simply arranged for more furniture as more people arrived.

Cordelia and he were sitting on a table top, just like she liked with their feet resting on one chair. Abraxas was standing on one side. Evelyn was sitting on a chair nearby and Titania and Burke were around. People adjusted themselves in a circular shape of sorts.

He did agree with Cordelia's inclinations to lay back on this one and merely contribute when people asked them to. They had too much on their plate with everything, adding the leadership of a project was quite undesirable.

But it did not seem like that anyone wanted to be in charge.

People just stared at everyone's faces for 5 minutes.

"Oh, Come on folks, you cannot be serious," Cordelia groaned after a while and pitifully buried her head in his shoulder. He just caressed her hair gently and indulgently.

"Now, what happened?" Alphard asked in confusion.

"Will somebody talk?" Cordelia hissed aggressively, peeping out from the crook of his shoulder.

"I will do it," Abraxas quickly volunteered, realizing that Cordelia's patience was immensely short already.

"Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming. As we told you in the brief meeting we had to tell you about the project and in our very short missive, a bunch of us in Slytherin had an idea…" he broke off at the pointed glare of Cordelia and amended quickly, "which does not include Cordelia and Tom, that we should do something that involves all houses, most years and an assortment of people from different backgrounds and genders to create something to present in the showcase. You will see that we have attempted to be as inclusive as we could. However, we are open to suggestions to add more people. This meeting is simply to gauge the interest, time and energy people are willing to put in and chart a plan of sorts. At the same time, we would also like to discuss major ideas because we have not really discussed what everyone would like to do. Lucretia suggested that we do a little bit of everything, as in incorporate everyone's ideas to create a bigger project and Irene and Titania and even Burke liked that. So yeah, talk, before Corrie hexes somebody…" Abraxas completed a tad bit nervously as he threw a quick glance to Tom and Cordelia to insure that Cordelia was not reaching for her wand.

"Well, we could make a niche potion." Vance suggested.

"It has to be aesthetically pleasing..." Sebastian said blandly.

"Creating a workable potion is an art Longbottom. It is not Vance's fault that you are too thick to see it." Prince said quite sardonically.

Before it dissolved into an argument, Pritchard said, "Nice idea, but too many people will spoil a broth. A potion would be disaster with so many conflicting voices. It would also not fetch many points if 52 people work on one potion. However, a potion could be one element of the entire project. I would suggest multiple potions but there needs to be a thematic cohesion in the project and also, potions is not everybody's strength here."

"Edmund, Rupert and I wanted to try our hands with permanent conjuring done in the presence of judges. It would take a great deal of time to come up with designs of useful and aesthetically pleasing things as well as great deal of practice." Ogden suggested.

"That can be another component," Charlie said in agreement.

"Runes," Kershaw simply said and a lot of Ravenclaws and Burke nodded.

"Applying muggle math to Arithmancy and Astronomy to create a mini modal of a lunar eclipse or any planetary phenomena…" Wright said.

"Something to do with Lie detection or truth serums…But I am open to other ideas" Nott shrugged.

"I want to look into a preservation spell or potion," Hardison admitted.

"Pranking everybody…" Anastius grinned as Alphard raised his hands in agreement

It earned groans, sighs and eyerolls from all over.

Women had stopped speaking after Longbottom vetoed Vance's idea. Just how pervasive was this net? Tom was sure that Cordelia had made similar conclusions. Cordelia and he were merely silent because they knew that once they start speaking, people will begin to weigh on their ideas.

"A group duel…" Sebastian suggested with a grin and there was a conundrum of agreement from mostly men of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

Cadwaddler opened his mouth but closed it and when he saw people giving him an expecting look, he blurted out, "Reading tea leaves…"

Laughter broke out.

"His predictions are really entertaining…" Whisp added with amusement as Cadwaddler turned red.

"Transfiguring and animating something into an otter and then charming it to do difficult stunts…" Alixan shrugged

"Playing the school song on drums," Bolton shrugged.

"That is not magic…" Whisp protested.

"It is if I charm the drumsticks and not do it manually…" Bolton shrugged again.

"Besides music is a powerful magical medium, Mr. Whisp. Beauxabatons has it as a compulsory part of curriculum, "Cordelia informed.

" Well, Beauxabatons has those flashy French people who can't tell the two ends of a wand apart…"Whisp dismissed her.

"I was raised in France," Cordelia told him shortly, "And it will take me less than a 'flash' to take your wand and your ability to see any of the ends away."

Whisp took a step back at her concluding feral smile.

Abraxas and Tom began chuckling right along with Lucretia, Titania, Gore, Gambol, Cole and Meads.

"Let me remind all of you, it is a magical and aesthetic spectacle. A few of us will need to focus on aesthetics… Also, Hogwarts had those classes until 1850s when they were suspended due to lack of faculty," Cordelia took great leisure in giving the information away.

"Would you like to give an idea?" Cordelia now asked Whisp rather kindly who shook his head vehemently and took another step back, and Cordelia's lips twitched as she looked at everyone, "Alright, then I think it is time that women began speaking."

When nobody spoke, Tom began, "Will we need to do what we did in the first court meeting all over again? Your voices matter and you will be heard."

There was a general staring at everyone moment and then Frobisher raised her hand and spoke sheepishly, "New firecrackers…"

Frobisher's business was a booming family firecracker business. In fact, Virginia's elder brother had graduated Hogwarts in Tom's second year and he had been a maniac about firecrackers as well. Her statement was not entirely surprising.

Ogden laughed. Most people cracked smiles. But the ice was broken.

"Ooh, I have a few ideas…" Gambol said interestedly and Frobisher nodded eagerly.

"Animating suit of armors for a physical duel…" Gore suggested.

Gores really did like gore. Perhaps Burke's comment about Gore being better suited to Gryffindor was not just a misattribution because of stereotypes. Tom shook his head and focused back on the ideas that were sprouting.

"I nodded when Kershaw said runes. I would specifically like to create a runic circle that can act as a shield. I know such circles already exist, but I wanted a compact one…" Ettington said.

"Arithmancy of the charm that is on the roof of the Great Hall…a small scale replication if possible" Vector suggested.

Titania sighed and said, "Nature magic, specifically, using Flute based music to control herbs and making them grow or obey directions. Could be very useful for herbs that have slow growths,"

"Magical weaving and design…"Tufts said

"Waltz…I suppose I could charm fruits to do an entire routine…" Babbling said.

"Sculpting life size models of major and rare plants for donation to the school." Abigail suggested.

"Using runes to create a usable tool…maybe a sensor or sneakoscope" Foster said.

"Building famous miniature structures in a given amount of time using levitation and sticking charms…" Jade mused.

"I am rather good at Carpentry…I could assist," Ollivander offered

"I am a good painter…I have also learned imbuing magic to make it move." Harper offered.

"I can create magical paints…all sorts of colors" Vance offered.

"I could help with that or any other complex potion…" Prince shrugged.

"Astronomical charts, the backstories and myths of every star…a magical working model of our galaxy, Hardison and I could compare notes…" Lucretia said.

"Creatures, all kinds," Hebe meads said, "I am rather good at research not so much with handling them. I can prattle on if people quiz me."

"Combat…" Cole said with a cheeky smile, "I could fight the suits of armor."

"I am named Coral for a reason. Give me plain water and I can make corals grow magically and do other pretty stuff with water…" Yeats said, shrugging.

"Dueling…I am trained in the Black dance," Dorea said firmly.

"I can create perfumes, aromas…" Abbot said, her voice was way more assured and confident than he had ever heard before.

"I am rather good at abstract philosophy but I cannot claim that I could do anything concrete, " Podmore hesitantly confessed.

"That's alright!" Cordelia gave her a smile as she gave an encouraging nod to keep people speaking.

"I really like Flying and I would love to do something around it!" Wildsmith said wryly.

"I want to test other muggle machinery, especially electric lights to function in wizarding world." Burbage hesitantly said.

"It would be cool if we got something like that…" Jade nodded empathetically.

"I want to create a directory of obscure magic around the world…especially ancient magical civilizations" Applebee said .

"I, well I wanted to transfigure objects into exotic animals…" Samantha Doge suggested weakly.

"I am rather good at Charms but I suppose I can also critique everything. Now, that is my real specialty…" Walburga said thoughtfully.

"You are also rather good at telling off people. You are in charge of discipline on the project meetings." Cordelia told, her tone brokering no argument and everyone just stared at her.

"Don't you stare like that…" Walburga snapped and everyone immediately shuffled and looked away.

Cordelia gave a superior look to everyone as this demonstrated the truth of her assertion.

"That leaves Shafiq, Evelyn, Lia and me…" Tom said aloud, tallying all the people.

"I will go last," Cordelia declared.

"I had planned on telling a Persian folktale using flagrate to draw figures in air, accompanied by a narration,' Shafiq smiled.

"I can read Greek, Latin, French and Portuguese fluently. I could help research obscure spells or potions or literature from those countries or ancient times," Evelyn hesitantly said.

Everyone's eyes opened a little wider except for Cordelia. Tom did not know anyone apart from Dorea and Cordelia who knew more than 2 languages. He himself was still learning French, while he understood most Latin; although his knowledge was mostly limited to spoken word. That Evelyn could fluently read in five, Tom shook his head. Cordelia really had an eye for picking out hidden gems.

"Parselmouth…" Tom shrugged, "Besides, I am a jack of all trades. I would rather work with everyone than focus on a personal project because Lia and I already have too many going." Tom admitted, and then looked at Cordelia expectantly.

"I have a brilliant idea," She gave everyone a brilliant, ecstatic smile, bursting with enthusiasm.

"Thanks for complimenting your own self, Heiress Black. Quite modest of you…" Burke coughed to hide his laughter.

"You shall be thanking me when you win one over Bagnold, Burke. Show some gratitude…" Cordelia teased back.

"Point…" Titania nodded.

"Alright, what is it? If it is anything like …." Alphard began excitedly.

"Calm down Affy. Secrets are secret for a reason, so keep that to yourself…" Cordelia stopped him before he gave away any incriminating information.

"I think we should do our own production." Cordelia suggested.

"Meaning…" Nott looked confused.

"Theatre, art, acting, a play of sorts?" Pritchard looked at Cordelia to confirm.

Cordelia eagerly nodded, "Imagine doing a play and incorporating all of your ideas. For set designs or live magic like conjuring, transfiguration and animation, or long prolonged potions like polyjuice or sleakeasy or aging potions or veritaserum for make up or instantaneous dramatic effects. We can use magical structures and paints to create sets. We can research obscure spells to create desired effects. We can charm objects and our designs; we can do live music by controlling bands. We can create our own music, we can tell a story or multiple of them. We can try to use lightening, runes and arithmancy to create weather, atmosphere and life like backdrops. We can have firecrackers and we can fly, duel, create planetary models, include creatures, create different smells to dramatize, use harmless herbs and vanes to tell ancient pagan and druidic stories. And use sculptures for everything else and use animation charms to give them life like effects. We can dance and we can create our own simple spells. Oh, this could be terrific…" Cordelia clapped her hands excitedly.

"None of us has ever done theatre formally…"Abraxas said weakly.

"I have! I have done drama, dance, music, fine arts everything. So has Eve, and Bolton's Dad is an actor and musician and he himself has played several parts during summers and before Hogwarts. Eve and I can help and Bolton could do the actual directing. Babbling can choreograph. And while it would be nice if everyone can make appearances, you do not necessarily have to act to be a part of this. There is so much to research and create," Cordelia argued, quite passionately.

Bolton looked shocked with his jaw drop as he blinked owlishly at Cordelia. It was either because Cordelia knew his background so thoroughly and/or that she had single handedly made him, a muggleborn, the in charge of everything on their project that had several purebloods. Yes, his Lia liked to shake things.

"It is a very good idea…I am just daunted by the ambition of it," Ogden pointed out.

"We have 2 months. All of us do not have to work for everything. We can make smaller groups like Dance, Music, Art, Charms, Transfiguration and meet accordingly. And once a week, a meeting of everybody to keep an eye of progress and share ideas…" King suggested.

"I quite like it. Magical Britain has been veering away from Arts and this could be a very good way to merge art with magic. Besides, it is really flashy and it would require a great deal of magical prowess, teamwork, ideation and cooperation. If we do this successfully, I doubt that anyone could top this," Shafiq nodded.

"And it is not just a frivolous showbiz type of thing. Creating magical paints, using live transfigurations, charms and making arithmetic runes for set design, all of it requires a great amount of genius and magical finesse. We will really, really learn tons of stuff…" Applebee exclaimed.

"And it will set a precedent, a very good precedent," Burke said, his face very contemplative.

"Which story did you want to do Heir Shafiq? I am afraid that the only Persian piece I am aware of is one thousand and one nights?" Tom asked curiously.

"I was thinking of picking something from there but we do not have to stick to that. Something from mythology would be more ideal for magical displays…" Shafiq suggested.

"Greek myths…" Lucretia suggested.

"Iliad and Odyssey are overdone and are too long…" Gambol shook her head.

"We could do Ovid. Something from the Metamorphoses, the slightly lesser known myths" Cordelia suggested.

"I can already think of several instances of Transfiguration…." Bones nodded eagerly.

"And Duels and combat magic!" Gore grinned.

"Potions…and sculpting and painting," Abigail had a wondrous smile.

"Plenty of runes and Arithmancy, if we use something of Daedalus," Vector said. .

"And charming a screen and surroundings to resemble meadows, palaces and rivers and creating solid miniature things from wood," Marks commented

" Firecrackers and bursting things for magical instances…."Frobisher jumped in excitement.

"We could even try adapting muggle lightening to create effects of night, day and evening," Cordelia addressed Burbage, who nodded at the possibility.

"We could have musical components; Orpheus…" Abraxas smiled.

"This is way more interesting than truth detection…" Nott admitted.

"And we can use our brooms and fly. Gods and Goddesses did that. We could even use magical carpets or something… and use disillusionment charms to hide it…" Wildsmith jumped up and down in excitement.

"That would be fun!" Sebastian grinned

"I suppose we can even prank the whole school with something tame and uniform to represent the Greek myth thing to another level…Maybe change their clothes with switching spells or something?" Rowle smirked as Anastius and Alphard shared devilish grins with him.

"Smells of fire, grass, rain and the like… capturing aromas and diffusing them at appropriate stage cues…" Mary Abbot said.

"Tufts could design the costumes?" Yeats said.

"Alright, alright! We can do tons of stuff. Let us pick a few stories from Metamorphoses. Someone will need to write and translate them. Someone will need to rework them. Then we decide different departments and a timeline…We also make a list of stuff that needs to be done, for instance, costumes, background, aromas, music…" Tom put a halt to all the excited blabbering and suggested reasonably.

"Evelyn and I can do the translation. Lois can write and Helen could point out philosophical tangents that we can use to dramatize. Lucretia, you are the most well-read when it comes to mythology…" Cordelia offered and gave Lucretia a questioning look.

"Medea and Jason, it will be difficult to execute but it is full of elements," Lucretia suggested hesitantly.

"Good choice! It will require tons of work and magic," Charlie nodded.

"Midas, we can use potions and spells to great effect" Shafiq quickly said.

"Arachne, or Procne and Philomela…" Lucretia suggested few more.

"Narcissus and Echo," Foster suggested

"Perdix or Daedalus and Icarus, considering someone mentioned Daedalus," McKinnon suggested.

"Pyramus and Thisbe…" Anastius suggested as Walburga rolled her eyes at his cheesy choice.

"I also like Baucis and Philemon…" It was Evelyn who suggested that. It was one of the less famous ones. Evelyn must have felt really strongly for it to speak up like this.

"Yes, that is one of the kinder and less tragic stories," Cordelia smiled at Eve as she recalled the details.

"Yes, the only other one I can think is Perseus and Andromeda…" Lucretia mused.

"And of course, we cannot forgo considering the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice," Tom completed.

"Isn't this too many?" Mckinnon shook his head.

"How about we translate all the shortlisted stories and pass all of you the translated documents? Then we divide into groups and jot down whatever magic or spell we can use and will gain us points for each story. Then all of us meet next Saturday, like we have met today, compare notes, create a master list and choose balanced stories, so if Medea and Jason requires too much work, we could pick one that is easier to do…" Cordelia suggested.

"Do you really want to go to the trouble of translating? I could ask Dad to send me one of his scripts. He is likely to have a translation and a doable script around. Ovid is a popular theatre subject with muggles. You can still tally the translation if you prefer and rework portions if you wish to, but it would cut the work…" Bolton said hesitantly.

"That is fantastic. Less work is good, we can do the tallying and we will be good to go," Cordelia appreciated his offer.

" Also, I alone cannot play all the music…" Bolton's hesitance did not waver.

"Eve plays Piano, Tom knows Guitar, so does Abraxas, Alphard knows Trumpets, Titania knows a Lyre and a flute. I am sure some others can carry a few tunes over some instrument even though I can't tell you from the top of my head. You can sing and play drums. Other people might also contribute to the singing. I think we should be good to go. I would prefer if you direct because while Evelyn and I are familiar with theatre, we have not spend as much time on it. I was more focused on dancing and Evelyn is phenomenal with a piano but we won't be able to do justice to direction…" Cordelia carefully considered.

"Oh, then it will be doable. If we figure out how to make electricity work or something as Burbage suggested, we could even record stuff on a Gramaphone and play them while we take care of other live things…" Bolton easily nodded.

"I can arrange a Gramophone…"Burbage said.

"It should not be too difficult to make it work. We will just have to compare the enchantments of Wizarding wireless radios," Wright claimed.

"That I can arrange," Ettington volunteered.

"I could arrange magical carpets," Shafiq volunteered.

The meeting went on till about 10 minutes to 6 as they started making a rudimentary list and jotting down what objects everyone could contribute and what would be required to be bought. Of course, most rich purebloods took the charge of buying the knick knacks.


Cordelia's POV

Dinner was quite explosive in light of Dumbledore's announcement of a section trying to take unjust advantage of his disagreements with Heiress Black and Lord Slytherin and trying to promote antipathy in the students.

Dippet announced that he was disappointed in the student body and he wished that more students could be mature in light of whatever was happening and thanked her and Tom and the court for taking charge when the Professors were unable to. It was a little over the top but considering Tom and she were not expecting anything from him and got a glorious approval and recommendation without any manipulations, she was not complaining.

Of course, Tofty had risen after that and said that he and the Auror in charge had tallied the information given by court and that it was trustworthy and completely correct. Of course, the announcement by Professor Dippet was also true but had only been made possible because the school Heads and the ruling council had insisted transparency of information.

Cordelia was sure that Tofty would not have done any of it if he did not feel strongly for it. Tofty had been furious at Dumbledore, yelling quite uninhibitedly at his colleague when Cordelia had brought up that Dumbledore had perhaps accompanied Tofty to the infirmary to interrogate Cordelia. Dumbledore had been told off for pulling Tofty in his ghastly machinations, told off for using Tofty's companionship to corner a student who was so dedicated to the school and then bashed by Tofty and Merrythought collectively for his meddling. Merrythought had gone a step further and rubbed his probation on his face as well. And it had happened right in front of Tom and Cordelia and the Professors had not bothered to take back their words or apologize when Dumbledore had insinuated interference of a third party. Instead, he had been fixed with a pitying and narrow looks from both senior Professors. They knew Dumbledore was lying to wheedle his way out. Merrythought had looked really proud and amused when Tom and Cordelia had used his wheedling to make Dumbledore look like a victim and force a public announcement out of him. Tofty had dismissively said that it was the least Dumbledore could do after being nasty to two 14 year old kids.

Such glorious few minutes.

While Tom and Cordelia had mostly not given away too much emotion in the confrontation, they had to show some of it in the dinner to the student body. Of course, they had not given any version of any events to the students, letting the Professors speak for them.

So, Tom and Cordelia had merely given grateful nods to the three announcing Professors. While the gratefulness was genuine for Tofty and Dippet, they maintained pretentious somber and understanding looks for Dumbledore as well.

Checkmate, you old coot. Checkmate, bigtime.

She doubted that people could see through the masks, though there would be a few people who would still doubt it, Avery for one.

If looks could kill, then Avery would have murdered them with every glance that she made in their direction.

But Tom and she were very sure that the Avery, Parkinson, Lestrange, Pucey gang would not retaliate immediately. They did not have that kind of courage. Besides, they would be digging their own graves in light of how the entire grapevine, Professors and students were in favor of Tom and Cordelia.

But despite that, Cordelia was secure because of the various enchantments on the Slytherin locket, which she still wore albeit it was always hidden underneath her blouse. No one knew that she had it yet but that did not mean that it will not do its job.

Tom was another story. She had wanted to take that locket and tie it around him for his safety but she knew Tom would never accept it back. Therefore, after that darn letter, Cordelia had requested the Head elf to put an elf shield around him. And Oddment had been ecstatic at the opportunity. So, even Tom was quite safe. (Author note)

Of course, Cordelia had expected Jormy to provide another level of security to him once upon a time but that snake had been more of a pain than a boon lately. Thankfully, Jormy had taken Cordelia's warnings rather seriously, apologized for her high strung demands and confirmed that she was going to behave.

She had admitted that her previous masters were not just stern but also quite dictatorial and when she saw Cordelia and Tom's interest in her welfare, she had gotten overzealous in her demands, not quite understanding that it took effort from their part to meet her every need much less demands.

And Tom and she had forgiven the snake. Mainly because, they recalled very well how uncertain and nice and jovial and teasing the snake had been in the winter break as she assimilated herself to Tom and Cordelia's routine. The high strung attitude was a recent addition and if the Apophis promised to work on it, then she deserved at least one chance to bounce back into their good graces. Of course, her earlier version of a teasing and occasional superior attitude was much more bearable, understandable and preferable than the whole high strung, demanding attitude and her constant desire for over-indulgence.

However, Jormy was not going to feature as a security failsafe just yet. Tom had suggested that it might do her and Erin some good, should they spend some time together. Erin was perhaps feeling very lonely in light of her stint in captivity and a rabid mindscape for very long and Jormy needed some sort of a role model.

Erin was also smart, mature and understood humans better because of her experience, so she might be able to help Jormy make sense of her transition from indifferent humans to Tom and Cordelia. Of course, Jormy understood this time better and came from a different part of the world so she would be able to fill the gaps that Erin was likely facing. They would be good company to each other. And of course, Tom and Cordelia would visit for food and news and checking up on them.

It was a very thoughtful and excellent strategy and it had surprised Cordelia. Not because Tom was not a good strategist or not thoughtful. But merely because his suggestion was deeply insightful of how relationships worked and considering that the first positive relationship he had held was with her, Cordelia was very proud that he was able to apply and learn so much from whatever time he spend with her. Because honestly, Cordelia did not think that she was responsible for the learning.

Yes, she had set several precedents in front of him in the form of various relationships that she had with her family and friends and even him but she had never sat down with him and explained stuff in detail about how things worked. Sure, she had answered honestly and in as much detail as she could when Tom asked her various questions but she had not actively 'taught' him anything. His insights and understanding were because of him, his keen sense of observation and his will and desire to learn and understand. And Cordelia, well, she was so proud and happy that he had come so far.

So, after handling the Dumbledore dinner, Tom and she had come and dropped Jormy in the Chamber of Secrets with her perch, basket and toys and rechecked all the safety and comfort spells that they had put for Erin a few days ago.

Now, the chamber was sparkling clean. Cordelia had taken samples of various magical molds and Tom had vanished the rest and disinfected it with the spell she had used earlier. Erin currently spent most of her time in the antechamber, though Cordelia and Tom had entered her nest, cleared and cleaned it up and put a bed of hay and various cushioning and warming charms so that she had a comfortable nest. Cordelia was still looking into habitat spells that she could cast to make this easier on the basilisk.

Tom and she had also found several storerooms. Some had some stuff but most of them were empty and bare. All the bones and skeletons that had littered the entire chamber and pipes had been stashed in the empty rooms. It was Tom's idea to do that because in Slytherin journals he had found mentions of a couple magical rodents, rodents that the current world was not familiar with and whom Salazar had deemed dead useful. While both of them had no time to go through the hundreds of skeletons right now, preserving them in a place where they could go back to them, should they wish, was more prudent than vanishing them.

They had chattered randomly with Erin and Jormy for a while and once the snakes had started talking to each other more comfortably, Tom and Cordelia had addressed the burning question of how had Cordelia achieved the revenge against Carrow.

"Wouldn't the aurors find the poison in the bottles?" Tom was curious.

"Muggle poison. Undetectable by magical diagnostics," She had promptly replied, "They will find traces of an artificial substance at the most if they do an ingredient analysis. But basically it is a poison that starts breaking down in alcohol after some 24 hours, so they will not be able to tell the original thing anyway. The draught for thirst is an old Veela recipe which is a highly kept secret and I also added a timed vanishing charm on it so once Carrow drank it on Thursday, it vanished like it never existed. They will find dehydration in his system but they won't be able to tell what caused it if they even go that far in his body but I doubt that they would puncture his body in such a state…" Cordelia had thoughtfully told him.

"And how did the rest of it happen?" Tom was very curious.

"Through rather questionable means…" She admitted, her eyes giving him the option of maintaining plausible deniability.

Tom narrowed his eyes at her slippery statement.

"A potion," She gave away.

"A single potion…" Tom reacted in an incredulous tone, "You mean to say that somehow a single potion managed to do everything, make that ward fall, make those plants attack, eat his fingers, his bones breaking and then vanishing and. A single potion cannot achieve the entire incident. It likely needed a very careful planning…"

"Listen to me; I did not plan any of it." She stopped him before he made drive himself to the wall, trying to think of possibilities.

"So, it just happened by chance, and you had no hand in it, like Carrow immediately had a bout of really bad luck and all of these things happened automatically when you had planned for your revenge.." Tom was very irate. Not being able to figure out something likely had to do with most of it.

Cordelia tried to be sympathetic but his petulance just amused her.

"I never said that I did not have a hand in whatever happened. I was responsible; I just did not plan it." She corrected and before she could complete her thought, Tom had interrupted her, "You hired someone to do it…"

"No, I wanted to take revenge personally." She immediately said.

"Then how?" Tom stomped his feet.

Cordelia could not help it; her amusement gave way to laughter.

"Don't you dare laugh at me Black…" Tom began again

"Oh, I am Black now….Riddle," Cordelia teased.

Tom was not happy at that jab as well and immediately opened his mouth to say something and was silenced before he could say anything as Cordelia placed a hand on his mouth and then proceeded to give him a chaste kiss on his lips, " Let me speak, love. I will tell you everything, promise!" She said sincerely.

Tom's eyes softened at her endearment.

He nodded a little sheepishly as he ran his hands in his hair, "Sorry…I"

"Went bonkers trying to figure it out…" She filled the blank for him.

He nodded to that as well.

"You guessed the main crux of it. I had planned the alcohol and thirst for one reason, so that he would keep drinking alcohol and would need a hangover potion, which I replaced with a single potion. I did not know what would happen at all and was as much surprised that the potion worked so well." She told him gently.

"I guessed it…" Tom looked a little better now, though a little confused and curious as he probably ran all that he had said to her in his mind.

"Do you know Felix Felicis?" She asked him, sparing his mind the exercise.

"Liquid luck…" Tom promptly said with wonder.

"Yes, the potion was similar to that, only it gives the drinker a really bad luck," Cordelia admitted, "In my memories, it is simply called Black luck. Carrow drank about seven spoonful so the bad luck would last for about 3 days, that is until today because by my estimates, he should have reached for the hangover potion on Thursday morning."

"I guessed it. He really did have bad luck the whole day…" Tom said in wonder.

Cordelia nodded empathically.

"That is so genius…" Tom cried and cupped her cheeks in excitement and pride and Cordelia could not help it and chuckled again and before Tom could react, she had hugged him tightly and said, "Only the best kind for my Tom, even if it is revenge."

Tom had only hugged her tighter in response.

The moment was broken when Erin had loudly asked Jormy, "Zeus, you are going to make me sick with all this mushiness. Are they always like this?"

Jormy's only reaction was loud hissing laughter and she was joined a minute later by Erin, who had started laughing at seeing Tom's indignant expression.

"They are just jealous that they don't have a nestmate who is as devious as me…or as warm as both of us, or who is as good at kissing and hugging as we are.. " Cordelia had flipped her hair at the duo of snakes with great leisure and the two snakes had stopped abruptly in their laughter at her jab and looked quite absurd and comical with their dangerous mouths hanging in confusion and shock, so Tom started laughing, and then Cordelia started laughing at the hilarity of it.

"Humans seemed to have lost their minds since I last woke up…" Erin said with grave realization, as she regarded the laughing riot of the couple.

That statement only made both of them laugh harder, as they leaned onto each other for support.

"No, we are just special," Tom hissed to Erin in the midst of the bouts of laughter as he wrapped his arms around Cordelia and pecked her temple in fondness.

"You sure are…" Erin said wryly and her slit eyes did something weird. Cordelia concluded that it was perhaps the snake version of rolling eyes.

"Come Jormy, it is time to sleep. Humans have no sense of nature's habits whatsoever. You will like the nest. Cordelia charmed the walls to have funny images of rats and cats. It is quite entertaining to fall asleep watching it. Leave these two to their own company, they can go without sleep if they wish to but snakes must care about these things," Erin slithered towards the open mouth of Chief of Evil Gaunt.

Jormy raised her tail and waved it in a gesture of bye, having picked it from Cordelia and slithered after Erin. Tom and Cordelia loosely waved their hands amidst the laughter and then proceeded to kiss each other for some time.

Cordelia had ushered Tom to bed after that. She wanted to use the antechamber for a complex device that she wanted to create. Tom had kissed her good night and after ensuring that she would not stay up past 12, had gone away.

As he left, Cordelia considered the empty chamber.

Chamber of Secrets had been a mine of information and secret passages. Tom had been right in his theory that the ugly and creepy snake mouths led to places all over Hogwarts. One eventually led to the Slytherin Common room after some rather deceptive security measures as Tom and Cordelia discovered. Nine led to different floors: Dungeons, basement and the 1st through 7th floor of the main castle. One led to the Owlery, one led to the Dark tower, one led to the Grand tower and one led to the grounds. The thing that differentiated these passages was that they could only be accessed through the chamber, that is, they were one way.

And that was not the end of it. All the main passages led to these locations but they branched off, in smaller, thinner ways, forking left, right, center as they connected each other and to other passages. It was like a different sort of maze and ways that could navigate the entire castle away from the main hustle and bustle.

Gaunts could not have achieved the entire network on their own in a single generation. No, this entire network was the product of time and the dynastic desire to be above others.

Salazar had created Parseltongue pathways too, just to see if he could. So Tom and Cordelia reckoned that Gaunts had used Salazar's pathways and the ambient parselmagic of the chamber and mutilated and utilized it until the entire network of tunnels and passages had become what existed now.

Tom and she had barely begun to scratch the surface of it but she could not deny that they were dead useful.

The storerooms described their own vivid and often bloody histories. Many of them reeked of the Black Arts and the entire space smothered Cordelia. Black Arts were heavier, more oppressive. She, as a magicae, had a natural defense mechanism in the form of disgust and these unseemly feelings. Others did not; to them, it was incredibly seductive.

Cordelia compared Black Arts to the myth of Aphrodite's appearance. Like the features of the Goddess morphed to suit the ideal of beauty of the person in front of her, Black Arts seduced with the promise and a way of fulfilling your greatest desires, whatever it may be. Immortality, strength, wisdom, family, love, power…the list was endless and as vivid as the desires that stirred sentient beings.

Of course, Black Arts never fulfilled the promise in a 'natural', regular way. Everything had its price. When Voldemort had portioned his soul to achieve immortality, he had lost his mind, his heart and his identity. There was the actual cost and then, there was the added lure of the Black Arts. You could not stop after you got your desires because the arts twisted and corrupted the desires in such a way that you would never be satisfied.

Black Arts was not merely seductive, it was addictive as well. Once you got a taste of it, you could not help but go back. Tom Marvolo Riddle had no chance of not becoming Voldemort once he created his first horcrux, one of the vilest of the Black Arts. Not just because death was natural but because your soul anchored you to the real world, to the cosmos. Once you divided the anchor, hurt it in an almost non-repairable way, you severed your connection to the living, natural world. There were other black arts, most being examples of necromancy. The resurrection stone, though quite similar was not actually necromancy. It did not reverse death or the natural order of things; it merely went to the cosmos and collected the portions that had formulated the soul of the person that the stone was calling.

Creating and calling otherworldly demons was another form of Black Arts which is why most people thought Basilisks to be one. The birth of a basilisk was different than the 'norm' but it was not unnatural. People understood nature and normal too narrowly. The Black demons were not sentient, nor did they fit into nature even after expansion.

Often, they seemed to be made of shadows and darkness but that was not the fact. Black Arts were made of non-material. It was difficult to explain this without venturing into particle Physics. But simply, for everything that was matter, there was anti matter. Similarly, while magic was the matter, the black arts were so to speak, the anti-matter.

Anti-matter is not supposed to exist in a world where matter is the primary building block. The interaction of anti-matter and matter was destructive, not just in an explosive way, but in different cosmological ways.

So, if magic amounted to 'something', then Black Arts were the exact opposite. And describing 'nothing' within a system of matter, which was a system of 'something', was useless. So, every descriptor of the natural world that humans used would fail to describe the state, function, appearance and the like of the Black Arts. The best and most common examples were dementors, neither living, nor dead; they simply were and they fed like parasites on the things that were essential to magic; souls and emotions. Lethifolds functioned similarly. They were just different 'incarnations' of Black Arts in different magical areas. Incarnation was again a futile descriptor but as it were, there was no better word she could think of.

The Regenerative potion was another example. The mark of the death eaters where their souls and magic were slaves to a non-entity was a Black Art as well. Drinking Unicorn Blood, a creature of pure magic was also practicing a Black Art.

Dark Arts was a mislabel that clubbed several magical and Black phenomena into one category. For instance, the killing curse or Fiendfyre were magic, stronger magic, fueled by emotions, similar to other spells. You needed to mean doing it if you wanted magic to take an effect. While imagining a levitation or a light or even cutting skin was easier to people, imagining stimulating all the pain receptors of the body (Cruciactus curse), or ridding the soul of a physical anchor like body (Killing Curse), or even manipulating someone's mindscape (Imperius curse) was a tad bit difficult and of course, it begged for moral questions.

Cordelia would not go as far as to say that magic was amoral, but she had no qualms in describing it as a bit morally ambiguous. What was moral to magic might not be moral to the sentient beings. For instance, Centaurs thought telling and influencing divined future was morally wrong, while Wizards put a lot of force in prophecies. Of course, magic knew and understood material incidents differently, primarily because, as long as the sanctity of magic remained intact, she did not care too much about the regular outcomes of the world. That was Fate's job. Of course, magic played a role in 'destiny' and so did 'death', but describing cosmos in the lesser language of matter was just as limiting as the descriptions of the Black Arts. Of course, Centaurs had no qualms in killing and torture as punishments or as a way of life, while humans were moving towards a stance that frowned on it. Of course, magic did not control attitudes or mindsets; even Death did not have that kind of control despite his power over souls, nor did Destiny. There were interconnected threads of several hundred deities who pulled different strings in different ways. Be it balance, or victory or darkness or fear or several others.

So, 'morally wrong' spells were not Black Arts, even if people frowned on their occurrence or on the imagination the spells needed to be casted.

And people mislabeled certain Black Arts as Dark Arts. For instance, inferi were the result of Black Arts and they were just considered Dark Arts. Several blood rituals were Black arts, and often got labeled as Dark Arts. That confusion was a little bit understandable simply because blood was a potent medium of matter; not quite as powerful as soul but sufficient and Black Arts could utilize it nefariously just like it utilized the soul (Horcruxes).

So, light magic had blood rituals, for instance voluntary sacrifices that offered protection. 'Dark magic' had blood rituals as well, such as blood wards that destroyed instead of protecting. And Black Arts had blood rituals as well, like blood of the enemy, forcibly taken.

Of course, the division of dark and light was not entirely just because it engaged with morality in a narrow framework. For instance, the noble family totems protected and destroyed. They were neither light nor dark in that sense, but they often got labeled such because of the stance of the family that the totem was tied to.

So, for instance, Black totem was dark while Potter totem was light, even though they were misnomers.

But Cordelia was engaging in a tangent. The point was that Black Arts were deceptive in an otherworldly way. So, when the waft of them had pervaded the antechamber as some stores were opened, Cordelia had been really concerned and afraid.

Erin had been so susceptible to their haze and Tom had immediately sent a Stupefy Maxima at her open jaw, making her fall in a heap before the waft got back to her head.

Cordelia was not surprised with Erin's reaction. She had suffered under Black Arts. Her mind had been dabbled with; her blood had been dabbled with even though her soul was still thankfully intact. But the previous encounters with Black magic were bound to be scarring and increase vulnerability. And as Cordelia said, once you touched Black Arts, it was almost impossible to curb their lure. You had to prevent that first contact.

Which is why, Cordelia was so surprised by Tom's resistance. Most powerful wizards got drunken and intoxicated when Black Arts touched them, whispered promises to them. And Tom had a valid reason for turning to Black Arts. He had been denied so much of the good in this world of matter that it would not have surprised her if he turned to otherworldly things, the anti-matter.

And he had. In Juniper's timeline, he had turned to the Black Arts.

But right then, his eyes shone clear and his face was suffering a frown, not from struggle of resistance, but from an aversion, not quite as strong as her feelings of repulsion, but powerful and meaningful. In that moment, Tom valued matter, Tom valued magic and Tom knew and understood that the world of Black Arts could not fulfill his deepest desires.

She wondered what his deepest desire was. Juniper's theorization for Voldemort had been that he had above all desired a world where he could not be hurt in any way. Hence, a way to be immortal, a way to silence his emotions (that were proving to be weakness because feeling them hurt) was the thing he had wanted from Black Arts.

Clearly, his desire was different this time around. And in that particular moment, Cordelia and Juniper heaved a sigh of relief. She had known and seen that Tom had changed, but to see the change so dramatically right in front of her, as Tom overcame a cosmic impulse of being seduced to stare at the impulse unafraid and disgusted right in the face? She was more than content and relieved. The time travel was not in vain.

Tom had noticed the pride, the speechlessness of her stance, her face and her eyes and in that moment, he had understood that how much it meant to her that he was standing with her against a force that she was born to fight.

"Someone has got to keep your crazy ideas in check…" He had said, making light of the situation before asking her what she wanted to do with all the rooms that stank of unnaturalness.

"Seal them with pure magic…my majority is still not here and while I can defeat and obliterate the every tiniest shred of Black Arts, it would be costly and taxing. We will come back to them once…" She had whispered.

So, Cordelia had used a lot of magical strength of Erin, borrowed the basilisk's magic as she sealed all the vileness away.

And since that day, Cordelia was curious. What exactly did Tom Riddle desire the most?

It would have helped to have Mirror of Erised around. The Mirror was a creation of Rowena Ravenclaw and a gift to Godric Gryffindor. Godric had lost his family to Black Arts and while he was sure that he would not give in to Black Arts because he hated them, it was still a struggle for him because hatred did not necessarily cancel the intoxication that Black Arts induced.

Rowena and Salazar had ideated that when you knew your desire, knew and understood it solidly; you could think of avenues that did not involve the Black Arts that could help you achieve the desires. It would give you a mental technique, a solid frame of reference to resist the Black Arts. In that sense, the mirror of Erised was a defense against the Black Arts.

In Juniper's timeline, the mirror had been around but Cordelia did not know where it was right now, in 1943.

And Cordelia was not just curious for the sake of being curious. She was…she wanted to know Tom's deepest desire so that she could fulfill it. As she had proclaimed many times before, she wanted to give him everything.

It was not his inheritance or his legacy or power or recognition…

She had developed a faint sort of idea over the past few days because of how Tom acted, how he spoke, how he saw or looked at things because she actively tried reading him to discern what he could want.

Quenching his current deepest desire would be the first 'official' token of her love to him.

And that is why; Cordelia was in the antechamber and not cuddled up next to Tom.

She had a complicated series of magics to do.


AN: I do not think that I will/can slot anybody just on the basis of their location. As stated several other times in fic, Evelyn is little traditional and has some problematic views about how things should be or are.


Hello dear readers,

I have had really eventful couple of days. My university is in the process of their student elections and it is ugly and dirty here. People are dragging mental health through needless politicization, are resorting to active bullying and silencing dissent. I almost feel like I am in the TRUMP land. No, seriously.

I could use some solid cheering up which is why, I am selfishly updating this fic. Your reviews will do just fine to make me feel better. So, please do review. I could use some positive interaction. :/

Next update: a month from now or earlier.