Scotland, Hogwarts 1944
Tom hadn't spoken to Maélys in weeks.
Well, every other day he caught her when she returned to the common room hours after curfew and he had to deduct points from his own house. But she'd always quickly move to her dorm before he could say something else.
So, weeks had passed and winter had turned into spring. The snow melted and more students went outside. The weather was sunnier and the temperatures went up.
Every student was in a fairly happy mood - only the seventh-years were more stressed than ever. In a few months they'd take their NEWTs which will determine their future.
Tomorrow, Easter break would start and many students would return home to their families for the holidays. Tom himself had been invited to spend the two weeks with Rosier as his parents would not be at home. His other Knights would join them after a few days.
"Come in, come in," Slughorn said to his students as he unlocked the door to the potions classroom. It was the last period before the school day was over and the students were eager to be done with the class.
"Tom, my boy, how are you today?", his teacher asked him as he walked toward his brewing table.
"Wonderful, sir. And you?"
"Ah, I'm ready for a few weeks of silence," Slughorn smiled and waddled to his desk.
"Sit down, dear students and let's begin! We have a lot ahead of us today!"
A few groans were heard throughout the classroom as many students had hoped to have relaxing class today.
"As I announced in September, our last big project of the year will be a group project. I always paired two students of the same capability. Each team has to brew the same potion: Veritaserum. Now, does anybody know what Veritaserum is and how it is used?"
Tom looked around the classroom. Only a few students held out their hands. d'Avaugour, he noted, was one of them.
"Yes, Miss Prince," Slughorn called a Slytherin girl.
"Veritaserum is a powerful truth serum. The potion effectively forces the drinker to answer any questions truthfully. But the use of this potion is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic."
"Correct, Miss Prince. Five points for Slytherin. So, I'll assign you in teams in two. You have until the end of May to brew the potion and hand in a protocol book about your progress and methods."
Tom only listened half to the names Slughorn was reading and read in his textbook about the potion he had to brew until -
"Mister Riddle and Miss d'Avaugour."
He abruptly looked up from his book and looked over to the girl. She did not even glanced in his direction but rather said something to the Prince girl, who sat next to her.
This was perfect for him, he thought. Now, she had to spend time with him while working on this potions project.
He tried to hide his sly smile. She cannot escape him now.
"I don't like saying 'I told you so' but-"
"The hell you don't, it's your favourite phrase", Louisa laughed.
"Hmm, maybe you're right. I do like saying it."
Maélys and Louisa sat alone in a compartment in the Hogwarts express, waiting for it to arrive at King's Cross. They had spent the entire train ride eating candy and talking about boys, in particular Oliver Dehoff.
The boy had been one of the Ravenclaws who regularly studied with the two girls. Just this morning, during breakfast, he'd asked Louisa if she wanted to go on a date with him after the holidays.
After they left the great hall and were alone, Louisa had squealed and danced around the corridor in joy. Laughing, she'd taken her friend's hand and spinned in circles until Professor Dumbledore had walked around the corner and caught them.
"Come, get your suitcase. I can already see the train station. I cannot wait to tell Amelia what happened."
Sighing, Maélys stood up.
She'd been invited again by the Travers, but she had to look after her family's estate. No one had been there in years and it was probably falling apart by now. But she'd join her friend during the Easter festivities.
After the train finally stopped in the station and Maélys had stepped onto the platform, she turned to Louisa.
"I'll apparate from here."
"Well, then, we'll see each other in a few days at Lady Greengrass's luncheon."
Louisa tightly hugged her friend.
"I'll miss you."
"Goodbye, Louisa. Unil in a few days. And good luck with your sister. If you need anything, just owl me!"
Louisa had decided that she'd tell Amelia what happened two years ago with Everard Avery and had been very nervous about it.
"Thank you, Maélys! Bye!"
With that, she turned around and vanished in the crowd.
And with a loud peng, Maélys apparated to her family's estate.
The manor did not lay in ruins like she'd expected. But it was in dire need of attention.
Sighing, she walked through the main doors, just barely hanging in their hinges, and put down her suitcase in the dirty entrance hall.
"Well, let's get to work," she said to herself, her words echoing on the walls.
"Mistress has come back!"
A house elf, had appeared next to the girl. Curiously, she looked down at it.
"And who are you?", she asked, kneeling down until she was at the same height as the creature.
"Wimly, Mistress," the eager house elf stuttered.
"Wimly has waited very long for someone to come back to the house. But Wimly was patient," she said proudly.
When Maélys last visited the estate, the only house elfs had been the old Toodey and Mimsy, but that had been years ago.
"Then let's go to work. The house looks like it needs a thorough cleaning."
Together, they walked through the dark hallways and Maélys assessed the damage the years of neglect had done to the house before starting to work.
With the help of Wimly's magic and her own, it took them less than three days to restore the old house to its former glory.
Satisfied and proud of their work, Maélys looked at the house one last time before apparating to Lady Greengrass's luncheon.
Louisa had warned her that appearance and beauty was very important to the hostess. So, she'd picked a beautiful white spring dress and matching jewelery.
Maélys had been to many luncheons in her life and this one was not different than any of the others.
Rich wife's sat in expensive dresses, bedecked with diamonds and rubies, talking about they newest gossip they heard while bragging about their wealth and success of their children.
"Miss d'Avaugour," she was greeted by Lady Greengrass who assessed her. Obviously pleased by her choice of outfit, the hostess told a servent to show her the way to the rest of the party.
The blonde sighed as she walked closer to the tables that stood on the lawn, which could not be that brightly green without the help of magic, she noted.
Many guests recognized her from the Malfoy's Yuleball and the Lestrange's New Year's Eve party and thus it took quiet a while for Maélys to make her way to the table where Louisa and her father sat talking.
"Oh Maélys, you're finally here! I thought you'd never come."
The newcomer laughed and hugged her friend.
"Good Morning, Mister Travers," she politely greeted the man.
"Good Morning, I hope you'd been alright the past few days," Torquin Travers said, "Louisa told me that you went to your old family estate, correct?"
"Yes, sir," the girl confirmed.
"Well, if you ever feel lonely in that big house of yours, you're always welcome at our home," he smiled.
"Thank you, sir."
"Well, then, I think I just saw Dawlish arrive. Miss d'Avaugour, Louisa, please excuse me."
With that he was walked away.
Taking a few snacks from the one of the food tables and finding a glass of orange juice, Maélys sat down next to her friend.
"So, do you want to tell me why your father left so abruptly?", she asked curious.
Groaning, Louisa sank deeper into the chair.
"A few days ago, I told him what I thought of Crouch and let me tell you, he was not happy with my choice of words, saying that I should have more respect for my superiors or something like that..."
Maélys laughed.
"What did you say?"
"Well, I have to be honest. While the words that I chose where certainly true I should still not be proud of myself for using them," Louisa answered.
"Now, I'm even more curious than before. Tell me!"
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. I said-"
"Miss d'Avaugour, what a nice surprise to meet you again," a voice interrupted Louisa.
Maélys turned around and was slightly startled by the young man that looked back at her, a knowing smile gracing his lips.
It was the same man she'd had the rendez-vous at the Yule ball.
She'd forgotten the man's name - or never even learned it in the first place.
"You know my friend Maélys, Mister Sartori," Louisa said before she could embarrass herself. But she also remembered his name.
Alessandro Sartori. A cousin on the Italian side of the Nott family.
"Yes, I met her at the Yuleball," he politely bowed before Louisa and the girl turned to her.
"Why didn't you tell me about that?"
"Eum... Mister Sartori and I didn't speak a lot with each other," the blonde girl quickly answered before he could say something about the nature of their meeting.
Technically, that wasn't even a lie.
"Well, do you want to come sit with us?", Louisa offered.
"No, thank you," he politely declined, "My cousin had asked me to join him and his friends. But it was nice meeting you again, Miss d'Avaugour, Miss Travers."
"And you, Mister Sartori," Maélys said.
Perplexed, she looked after him as he walked away.
"Well, that was odd," she voiced her thoughts out loud.
"I was just going to say the same thing to you," Louisa answered.
"So... Alessandro Sartori, huh?"
The brown-haired girl wiggled her eyebrows at her friend who could only snort.
"That's ridiculous!"
"The only thing about that guy that's ridiculous is how good-looking he his."
"Fair point, my dear, but he's not my type," Maèlys said as she took a sip of her drink.
"The problem is that he knows that he's handsome and he uses that knowledge to its full extent, charming one lady while bedding another. And the girl he idolizes one night is already forgotten the next one."
"Maybe, but he hasn't forgotten you", Louisa pointed out.
Maélys did not know how to answer that and instead took a bite from a delicious lemon cake.
"I wonder why he came over though," her friend said, "but did not stay..."
The blonde girl shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, don't look at me. If you want to know then you have to ask him."
"Hmm, I think you're right. It is pointless, I guess."
"Whatever, we were talking about your conversation with your father. What did he say to your rejection of that old, ugly man?"
"Well, he told me that my mother would turn in her grave if she heard me talk like that," Louisa snickered.
"But exept for that, he respected my answer. I guess now that Amelia wants to marry that pompous ass I have more freedom in my choice of husband."
"She still wants to marry him? I thought you wrote in your letter that you told her why you don't want him to be her husband?"
Louisa sighed: "I did. But she insisted that he changed since then. So, although I don't want to see my sister hurting, I hope he does something that would cancel their wedding. This way she isn't caught in a love-less marriage."
"And there's nothing you could say to change her mind?"
"No, I tried everything."
Maélys was quiet for a moment before she took her friend' hand.
"Well then, do you want to give her good fate a helping hand?"
When Tom Riddle had told Rosier to find information about Maélys d'Avaugour he had expected to uncover her secrets, find something he could use against her.
But instead, he got nothing useful. No interesting information that he could use.
She was the daughter of Henri and Madeleine d'Avaugour and had one older brother. Her name was found in the records of the French wizarding school, the Beauxbatons Academy. After Grindelwald's attacks on the school, the parents had ordered their daughter to return home, thinking she'd be safer there.
But only two weeks after her return, Grindelwald had ordered a surprise attack on the small villages of the Bretagne, killing both her parents. The girl just barely survived, but somehow was able to save herself and find her way to Hogwarts. No mention of the whereabouts of her brother.
But Tom already knew all of that. He'd looked through copies of her certificates of the past years and found out that she'd always been an outstanding student.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Except...
Expect for the fact that while fatally wounded she'd still been able to apparate from the north of France to Hogsmeade and then walk the way from the village to the castle.
What she'd done was impossible... No one could've survived that. Not even with magic. The girl had been dead when she stumbled into the great hall.
But there she was, sitting next to her roommate, laughing about something he couldn't hear. Her white dress blinding him in the midday sun, a matching hat to shield her from the light and jewelry that sparkled like a thousand little diamonds.
She looked like everything Rosier had found out about her: an abundantly wealthy heiress.
But still... he knew that something was wrong with her. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.
"What do you say, Riddle?"
He was ripped from his thoughts and turned back to his little group.
"Excuse me, Nott. I was somewhere else with my thoughts."
"I was just saying that my cousin would be here today. I asked him to come, like you told me to."
"Perfect, Nott."
Tom liked to use occasions like these to find new people who would join his cause. Here, everyone belonged to powerful and influential families. Where else would be a better place to find like-minded people than here? He needed those parties to woo possible followers and plant ideas into the weak-minded?
Maybe, he thought, he should try a different strategy with d'Avaugour.
The girl was the only member of a once very powerful family. He could use her to get a footing outside the British aristocracy, find followers on the continent.
Maybe, he thought, he should try to woo her into following his cause.
She certainly was very intelligent. Her duelling skills far surpassed his, although he only grudgingly admitted that, and she knew more about magic than most of his Knights. She'd truly make a great addition to his collection of talents.
Maybe, he thought, this was the only way to find out what felt so wrong about her.
With a new aim in mind, he turned his attention back to what his Knights were saying around him.
