HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET ENEMY
Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.
CHAPTER 46 - Three Princes
9 May 1993
The Prince's Lair
"But enough about ancient history," said Lucius. "Regulus Black, I should like to know very much where you have been these last thirteen years."
"Well, Lucius, it's a long story. One that starts with a cave in Dorset. No, that's not right. It really begins ... with a house elf."
"In 1979," Regulus began, "the Dark Lord demanded the use of a house elf, so I sent my family's servant Kreacher to do his bidding and then return to me when he was finished. The poor thing showed back up around midnight nearly dead. You see, Voldemort needed the elf to test the magical defenses of a treasure he wanted protected, and apparently, in his arrogance, Voldemort failed to realize that house elves could easily bypass any and all wards if ordered to do so by their masters. I had ordered Kreacher to return, and the fact that he was poisoned almost to death was not enough to keep him from fulfilling his duties. By that point, I was already ... ambivalent about continuing my association with the Death Eaters, and I was incensed at what had happened to Kreacher, so I decided to follow his footsteps and find out exactly what Voldemort considered so important as to hide under such extreme security."
Regulus paused as if collecting himself. "It turned out to be a golden locket bearing the crest of Salazar Slytherin ... and containing a fragment of the Dark Lord's soul."
Lucius's eyes flashed in a fury. "You mean...?" he hissed.
Regulus nodded.
"It was a horcrux?" Harry asked in clarification. Both men turned to look at him as if he'd just sprouted horns.
"As I believe I mentioned, Harry Potter," Regulus said after a long pause, "you are dangerously well-informed. How in the name of Morgana's lacy underthings did you ever learn that word?!"
Harry shrugged. "Actually, I picked it up less than an hour ago from Rufus Scrimgeour. It was the word he used to give a name to an object Headmaster Dumbledore described to me." He paused and turned to Malfoy. "The diary was a horcrux as well."
Lucius closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers.
"I take it you didn't know, Mr. Malfoy?" Harry inquired.
"Of course not!" Malfoy snapped. "I knew it was a dark object which the Dark Lord had ordered my father to conceal and, as he put it, to treasure more than the lives of all his family members combined, a fact that Father was only to happy to share with me. When the aurors began raiding Pureblood homes in the aftermath of that debacle at your birthday party last summer, I elected to rid the house of everything that I thought might lead to censure or worse. Narcissa doesn't know I removed it or that I ever even had it. Most of the items I stored in the secret vaults beneath Borgin and Burkes, but they flatly refused to keep the diary on the premises. I later learned that it was because Tom Riddle had once been an employee of theirs, and they feared keeping the diary onsite might implicate them in his disappearance."
"Woah, woah, woah," said Regulus angrily. "I've been on the run from the aurors for two days and am obviously a bit behind. What's all this about a diary that's also a horcrux?"
Harry briefly filed him in on what they'd learned about the diary, its effects on Ron Weasley, and how it had made its way into his possession. Regulus turned towards Lucius. "You gave a horcrux to an eleven-year-old girl?!"
Lucius looked at him with a sour expression. "Keep a civil tongue, Regulus. At the time, I had no reason to think it was a horcrux. My father, in a depressingly typical failure of his paternal obligations, never taught me the identification spells. I knew only that it was a dark object I no longer wished to keep under my roof. Unfortunately, I subsequently had that ill-timed encounter with Arthur Weasley in front of Flourish & Blotts. Between my desire to be rid of dangerous contraband and the force of the Oath of Emnity I was under, passing the diary off to one of his children suddenly seemed an entirely reasonable course of action. My assumption was that the diary would be discovered when the girl tried to carry it through the school's wards. I thought that it would be personally and professionally embarrassing to Weasley and might well derail his Muggle Protection Act. But I never dreamed anyone would actually be able to penetrate the school with an object so obviously cursed. As governor, I am well-aware of how sensitive Hogwarts' wards are to dark objects."
"Not anymore they're not," Harry said. "Apparently, the Headmaster deactivated those wards last year in order to bring in a dark artifact that he wanted to use to capture You-Know-Who's soul."
The two Princes stared at him practically bug-eyed.
"Long story," he said.
Lucius shook his head. "I swear, that man will be the death of us all! Never mind. Let us return to the diary later. What happened after you learned of the Dark Lord's locket-horcrux, Regulus?"
"I stole the thing, left a copy behind, and charged Kreacher with destroying it. Then, having no further desire to associate with the Death Eaters, I faked my own death and left for Australia, where I forged a new identity under the name of Lazarus White, eventually becoming an auror. That lasted until my run-in with the Wagga Wagga werewolves, which drew the attention of Gilderoy Lockhart who came to interview me about what had happened. He was a wanker of gargantuan proportions and a thoroughly awful person, so I stole his identity, wandered the world as an author-adventurer-dilettante and eventually came here. That's pretty much all of the important bits."
Harry studied the man carefully. He knew there was much more to the story, since James Potter had said that Lazarus White's family had been "massacred" by those same Wagga Wagga werewolves, but Regulus clearly had no desire to discuss that and Harry wouldn't be the one to push that part of it.
"What happened when you met Lockhart?" he asked.
"Like I said, he was an unbelievable prat and, worse, a sociopathic loon. Except for the bits pertaining to Hogwarts, all the things that I had Lockhart confess to at the Daily Prophet were things he'd actually done and had confessed to me under Veritaserum. He really did, as your father suspected, make it a habit of tracking down heroes and learning all their secrets about how they'd destroyed monsters or what have you, before Obliviating them so that he could take credit for their accomplishments. Plus, there were other ... even less savory Obliviation crimes I won't go into now on account of your youth. He tried to do the same to me, but I managed to get the best of him. An hour and three drops of Veritaserum later, I knew his whole sordid story. A few more days in a secluded spot and quite a few more vials of Veritaserum, I knew enough to pose as him for the next seven years. Frankly, knowing full well what a fraud he was, I rather enjoyed roaming the world fighting the forces of darkness under his name and actually being the dashing hero he only pretended to be. Plus, I also got to try my hand at creative writing. Turns out I'm quite good at it judging by how much Lockhart's sales improved after I took over things."
"But where was the real Lockhart during all this?" Harry asked.
"Hidden away in a private Muggle hospital in Zurich and pumped full of Draught of Living Death," he replied with a smug expression. "The doctors believed him to be in a 'persistent vegetative state.' I retrieved him yesterday, gave him the antidote, and used the Imperius Curse to make him confess to his misdeeds – plus a few other things that I needed a patsy for – and then inflict personality death on himself with the Tabula Rasa Curse. Since that's the penalty that would have been imposed on him had he been arrested in Australia, and also a damned sight better than the room in Azkaban that would have awaited him if he'd gotten caught here in Britain, I can't bring myself to feel too badly about it."
"Not even about your admitted use of the Imperius?" Lucius said mildly.
"Yes, yes," Regulus said, waving his hand airily. "I used an Unforgivable Curse which is a one-way ticket to Azkaban, and I'd feel quite worried about my future if I thought there was the slightest chance of me getting caught. Or do either of you have plans to tattle on me?"
Lucius snorted contemptuously at that. "Ethical objections aside, perhaps it would be best if we return to the more pressing issue of the Dark Lord's ... horcruxes? Horcroi? I must confess that I do not know the plural form of horcrux. I hadn't thought it possible to create more than one."
"Neither had I," said Regulus. "It's a Medieval French translation of a forgotten Greek word, so I assume horcruxes is correct. So now that we've gotten the proper grammar out of the way, would you mind telling us, Harry, what exactly Dumbledore and Scrimgeour had to say about the topic?"
Harry shrugged. "Not that much, to be honest." He closed his eyes and mentally summoned up the memory. "Dumbledore's exact words were 'Voldemort did place a fragment of his soul inside this book, using the most foul and despicable of arts and a spell whose name I will not repeat.' And then, a bit later, Scrimgeour mentioned that the ritual Voldemort used was called the Horcrux Ritual. I think he was just trying to tweak Dumbledore for some reason. Dumbledore got mad at him and mentioned that the spell was from the Anathema Codex and that he shouldn't be talking about it in front of students."
Malfoy shook his head. "No. Scrimgeour was testing you to see if you showed any signs of recognizing the word horcrux. He wanted to know if you'd had access to the Codex." Regulus nodded in agreement. Harry opened his mouth and then closed it again. Now that he thought about it, that did make more sense than someone as canny as Scrimgeour accidentally blurting out in front of a twelve-year-old boy something that, based on Dumbledore's reaction, seemed very much like a state secret.
"Regulus was right when he lectured me as Lockhart in his office yesterday," the boy thought. "I really do need to up my game and start paying closer attention. Wheels within wheels and all that." He shook off that thought and returned to the matter at hand.
"But why would he even think that I might know anything about horcruxes? I'd never even heard about the Anathema Codex before you talked about it this year in DADA."
"You are the Heir Presumptive to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, Harry," said Regulus. "The Ancient and Noble Houses created the Wizengamot in large part to fashion a state-run mechanism to control and suppress knowledge of the Anathema Codex and the information within it. Other nations have similar bodies, but Britain is the only one where it evolved into the hereditary aristocracy that runs the country. It was plausible to think that your father might have briefed you on the topic."
Lucius snorted. "Assuming the man himself knows anything about it. Setting aside your notorious estrangement from James Potter, I seem to recall that Charlus Potter died before James reached the age of twenty, and the younger Potter was still known for his rashness and immaturity even then. It is possible that Charlus did not entrust him with any knowledge of the Codex prior to his death and that James Potter has failed to locate the Codex in his family vault or to understand its significance if he has seen it."
"Okay," said Harry somewhat testily. "We'll just add that to the list of ways my father has failed in his duties as Lord of the House and move on. Now what can you tell me about the Horcrux Ritual that Dumbledore describes as the most foul and despicable of arts? Or do you also think it's something no innocent twelve-year-old waif should know about?"
"Don't get peevish, Harry," said Regulus. "We'll tell you what we think you should know which will be more than what 99% of the wizards in Britain will ever hear. You're scion of an Ancient and Noble House and also a promising candidate for Prince of Slytherin, so I think you're entitled." He looked over at Lucius, who nodded his assent. "A horcrux is a soul anchor. If you've created one and later get killed, it will prevent your soul from moving on from the material plane. You're not a ghost exactly. You're much more, well, active than that, able to move about freely and to possess animals and weak-willed people. The centuries-old friendly and genial Hogwarts ghosts – Bloody Baron aside – are atypical, the result of the castle's magic. Most ghosts either dissipate harmlessly after a few years or go insane and maintain themselves on the fear they produce by haunting people. A horcux-bound soul doesn't have to worry about that. And unlike a ghost, you can be restored to life if a suitable new body is fashioned for you. The main requirement for making a horcrux is that you kill someone who did nothing to wrong you and you show no regret for having done so. That destabilizes your soul in such a way that it allows you to shear off a portion of it and store it inside a prepared magical object."
"It has to be magical? Voldemort couldn't make a horcrux out of any random pebble or something?"
"No, the Codex says it has to be a magical item. In fact, it would be wasteful if he didn't use a magical object. Aside from the benefits of having a soul anchor, you can access whatever magical properties the object originally had even if the object isn't in your possession, and if the horcrux gets destroyed, it's possible that you will permanently gain whatever those powers are. The locket, for example, improved the wearer's facility with Legilimency, and the Dark Lord's skill at that is legendary." Regulus paused. "Which begs the question of what Tom Riddle's old diary could do that made it an attractive choice for a horcrux?"
Harry hesitated and then spoke cautiously, watching the other two men for their reactions. "In the Chamber, Voldemort said that Tom Riddle originally enchanted the diary to record his notes and thoughts in order to help with his homework and essays."
Regulus frowned. "Hmm, still pretty weak magic for a horcrux. You can use things you enchant yourself if they're important enough to you, but I don't see how a random student's study aid would be powerful enough." Lucius said nothing but looked thoughtful.
"Lord Malfoy," said Harry carefully. "What do you know about Tom Riddle? When we talked after Draco's petrification, I was pretty sure you knew the name then. Obviously, you recognize it from the diary, but was there anything else?"
"Very little. I, of course, knew that Tom Riddle was my predecessor as Prince, though the Hydra was oddly reluctant to speak of him. When the Dark Lord presented the diary to my father, I inquired about the name. In retrospect, it was terribly foolish of me, and I'm surprised that neither of them placed me under the Cruciatus for my impertinence. Instead, the Dark Lord laughed and told me that Riddle was a Mudblood and a blood traitor who had somehow found his way into Slytherin, and that he had murdered Riddle years earlier for disgracing our House and fashioned the man's diary into a magical artifact of great power. That was all he had to say, and I chose not to inquire further at that time."
Harry stared at Malfoy, as if trying to confirm that he was being truthful. When he was satisfied that the man was, Harry pulled his wand, cast the Pyrologos spell, and wrote the words Tom Marvolo Riddle in the air in flaming letters.
"You, um, might want to brace yourselves," he said as he slashed his wand through the air. The letters moved around to spell out "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT." Upon reading the words, Lucius appeared thunderstruck, while Regulus immediately became excited.
"OF COURSE!" he exclaimed before jumping out of his chair to examine the list of former Princes. "Tom Riddle was Prince from 1943 to 1945. Then, he just disappeared. And then, years later, the Dark Lord showed up out of nowhere with no apparent history and claiming to have killed Riddle. And no one made the connection, even though they're both British Parselmouths and incredibly powerful wizards!" He whirled back around to face Harry as if suddenly frustrated and annoyed.
"So WHY did no one make that obvious connection?!" he asked as if suddenly realizing how his deductions didn't add up. Harry had the answer.
"The Headmaster's theory is that Voldemort first put his soul fragment inside the diary and then used it to give the diary self-awareness and a personality just different enough from his own that it could serve as Secret Keeper for a Fidelius, one that concealed the connection between Riddle and Voldemort."
"A Fidelius," said Regulus in wonderment. "Would a Fidelius even work that way?"
Lucius looked thoughtful. "Quite possibly, I would think. The horcrux, after all, invokes principles of Wild Magic. I should think it could easily be used to bypass the normal restrictions on any conventional spells cast upon it, especially one as free form as the Fidelius."
"Okay," interrupted Harry. "Wild Magic. Is that from the Anathema Codex or what?"
Malfoy looked to Regulus, who shrugged. "He's a good Third Level Occlumens, and since you're on the Throne, he'll be protected by the Lair's defenses. I say tell him what he wants to know. We'll need someone we can trust on the inside of Hogwarts, I suspect."
Malfoy considered that and turned back to Harry. "I presume, Potter, that you experienced accidental magic as a child, as most of us did." The boy nodded. "That is Wild Magic in its most simplistic form. You cast no spell. You held no wand. And yet, you wished for something and it came to pass, quite likely in a seemingly impossible manner. Magic in its raw form, freed of the restrictions placed upon it by the techniques taught here at Hogwarts and at other magical schools, can be summed up in eight simple words: 'As I will it, so mote it be.' Our kind have spent millennia striving to limit magic's potential, to ensure that magic is irrevocably linked to wands and incantations, defined as charms and transfigurations and potions, and restrained by the principles of arithmancy and runic matrices. The minute you picked up a compatible wand at Olivander's, those sparks that shot out represented your promise as a wizard that you would work magic according to the principles taught you here at Hogwarts. After that, I dare say you never experienced accidental magic again except perhaps under the most extreme provocations. Even if you should one day master wandless magic in some form, it will still be based on your sense memory of casting the same spells with a wand in your hand."
"But ... why?" Harry asked in confusion. "Why go to all that trouble to ... bind Magic?"
"It's like you said after we saw the Imago Dei, Harry. If every wizard or witch could work magic just by wishing really hard, it would tear the world apart."
"Imago ... Dei?" Lucius said weakly. "You have encountered by a horcrux and the Imago Dei this year?!"
"Like Harry said, long story," Regulus said with a grim expression. "And one I can't say much about due to an oath, but yes, we have both witnessed the memory of the Imago Dei being cast. It was every bit as terrifying as you might expect."
Lucius shook his head. "You realize, of course, that it is significant that you and Potter have both encountered Codex spells within such a short span of time. There are no coincidences where Wild Magic is concerned. Fate is but an instrument of the Wild."
"I know," Regulus said solemnly. "And can I assume from your reaction to all this that you now agree that the Dark Lord must be fought, whatever our prior allegiances?"
Lucius sighed heavily. "My prior support for the Dark Lord was never the result of ... allegiance, Black. But you are right. Voldemort's creation of multiple horcruxes marks him as the foe of all wizarding kind. Indeed, perhaps an enemy of the entire human race. We must proceed cautiously against him, at least until the horcrux situation is fully examined and resolved. And it goes without saying that this is a matter for Slytherins with no room for Gryffindor foolishness or heroics. But yes, I am in agreement with you."
Harry raised his hand as if inquiring of a professor. "Um, question: Can you expand on that whole 'enemy of the human race' business?"
"Given your experiences with the Dark Lord, Harry, surely you agree that he is a monster who must be fought and defeated," said Regulus. "Especially now that you know of his horcruxes."
"Well that's just it. I don't know much of anything about horcruxes except what you just told me. I know you kill someone, and that lets you put part of your soul inside a magical object that anchors you against dying. But you two and Dumbledore talk about horcruxes like they're the most evil things ever devised."
"Have you encountered something worse, Harry?" Regulus said with some surprise.
Harry shook his head as he struggled to express himself. "Look, I understand that the horcrux basically calls for a human sacrifice, and that is undeniably horrible and evil. But Voldemort personally killed hundreds, and the movement he led killed thousands. I guess I'm having trouble seeing why the fact that he used some of those murders to extend his own life is so much worse than the mere fact that he committed all those murders in the first place."
Regulus opened his mouth to respond, but Malfoy interrupted. "He raises a valid point, Regulus. It occurs to me that we have danced around the most salient point of the Horcrux Ritual, which is also the reason for our revulsion at our former master."
Black thought about that and nodded. "Alright then. The truth, Harry, is that we don't really know much about what we call the Horcrux Ritual. Part of why I came to Hogwarts disguised as Lockhart was to gain access to the Restricted Section of the Library, but there wasn't much useful information there. Even Magick Moste Evil didn't have much to say and I had to handle that book with gloves just to touch it safely. The Anathema Codex says the horcrux is created through Wild Magic, so there's probably not much of a ritual to it at all. In fact, it's possible that all you physically need to do is kill someone and then concentrate hard on sending a part of your soul into a suitable vessel. There wouldn't be anything that we could consider spellwork as part of the process. But what we do know is that creating a horcrux is esoteric magic. Like the Patronus Charm, it requires a certain mindset to properly cast. More than that, to keep a horcrux, you have to maintain this mindset constantly for the rest of your life and even after your death."
"What mindset?" Harry asked cautiously. He suspected he wouldn't like the answer.
"An absolute certainty that out of the entire human race, your life is the only one with any value," said Lucius bluntly. Harry's eyes widened in surprise as the implications of such a mindset became clearer.
"Or to put that another way," Regulus said, "if there is a single man, woman, or child in the entire world who you might refrain from brutally murdering in order to make a horcrux, then you would never be able to create a horcrux at all. Moreover, if something ever happened to cause you to feel that degree of empathy for anyone else, any of your existing horcruxes would lose their soul-anchoring properties."
"Got it," said Harry in a shaky voice. "A technique for achieving immortality that can only be used by murdering psychopaths. I can see what people wanted that spell suppressed."
Lucius nodded. "In fact, it is a rare psychopath indeed who can possess such a level of absolute detachment from even the most basic forms of empathy. In retrospect, it seems astonishing that Tom Riddle could have risen as far as he did as a student without his true nature being discovered."
"I don't think he was a psychopath at all in the beginning." Quickly, Harry told the other two Slytherins what he'd learned about the circumstances surrounding Moaning Myrtle's death. "Riddle was a natural but self-taught Occlumens. Completely by accident, he killed someone who was at the very least a friend, and from the way Myrtle talked, possibly more than a friend. And rather than deal with the trauma, he inverted his Occlumency and used it to permanently burn out his ability to feel empathy or affection in any form. Would that have allowed him to maintain the horcrux mindset?"
The two men looked at one another. "Easily," Regulus said with a frown. "And once he did so, his newfound lack of regret over killing the girl would have allowed him to perform the soul-manipulation later even if he didn't actually kill the girl for the purposes of making a horcrux." He looked back and forth between his two peers. "So what do we with the knowledge that Voldemort made at least two horcruxes?"
"Three," Harry interrupted, causing the two men to turn to him once more in shock. Regulus spat out an expletive while Harry continued.
"In the Chamber, Riddle also said that he had the Ravenclaw Diadem but that it was hidden far away and he could still access its powers. That sounds like he made it a horcrux too, right?"
"Lucius," Regulus said, while massaging his temples, "how many horcruxes is it possible to make?"
"I haven't a clue. We'd have to consult an Arithmancer to determine what number might be the most magically stable, assuming that in his hubris, the Dark Lord even concerned himself with matters of stability. Any more than one is a sign of suicidal madness, since each additional horcrux further damages the integrity of the soul and increases the likelihood that it would degenerate or even fall apart."
Suddenly, he assumed a thoughtful expression.
"You know," he said to Harry, "it's possible that your brother might have had nothing at all to do with the Dark Lord's destruction. I suspect he planned to use the Killing Curse on Jim Potter as a prelude to creating another horcrux. Killing the so-called Child of Prophecy and using his death to further strengthen his immortality would have amused him. Only on that occasion, he rolled the dice one time too many, and his soul ruptured in a backlash of uncontrolled Wild Magic."
Harry shook his head. "There might be something to that, but Jim definitely has some sort of 'Voldemott-killing" power. There was an incident last year involving Voldemort possessing a teacher who got incinerated when he tried to kill Jim and me. And there's also ... another fact I'm not at liberty to discuss."
"An oath?" asked Regulus.
"I ... really couldn't say."
"Noted."
"Let us move on to the next matter for concern: How did the Dark Lord even acquire knowledge of the Horcrux Ritual?" Lucius asked.
"Well, the copy of him from the diary said he spent years searching the world for rare occult knowledge, but he wasn't a very reliable narrator, and it's not something the real Voldemort would have wanted shared." Harry thought for a moment. "You were talking earlier about how the Ancient and Noble Houses were the guardians of this information, right? Does each Ancient and Noble House keep a copy of the codex?"
"No," said Lucius. "Only those which date back to the founding of the Wizengamot?"
"Were the Gaunts part of the founding families?"
Lucius and Regulus looked at one another. "Yes," said Regulus. "Why?"
"Tom Riddle's mother was a squib, but his maternal grandfather was Marvolo Gaunt, the last Lord Gaunt. And Dumbledore said that when Riddle returned to Hogwarts as a rising Sixth Year, he was already wearing the Gaunt family ring. Could he have gotten a copy of the Codex that way?"
"Yes," said Lucius eagerly. "Almost certainly so if he obtained his family ring." Then, Lucius barked out a laugh. "Everyone was so awestruck by the Dark Lord's grasp of obscure magic ... and it turns out he simply read it all out of a book, a copy of which many of us kept locked away in our vaults because we were afraid to touch it."
Lucius shook his head and turned back to Regulus. "What became of the locket?"
"As far as I know, either Kreacher found a way to destroy it or else it's hidden at 12 Grimmauld Place, the home I grew up in. And, unfortunately, the home I can't get into. The wards locked the place down when my mother finally passed away in 1985. Arcturus died last year, which means that Sirius is Lord Black now, despite his imprisonment, and he's the only one who can get into Grimmauld Place to retrieve it. Which brings me to my next question. Lucius, can you kindly explain to me how my brother Sirius came to be sentenced to Azkaban for being, and I quote, 'You-Know-Who's right hand man'? Because unless he changed a great deal indeed in the two years after I left, I find that description highly improbable."
"Frankly, I thought it implausible myself. He was arrested based solely on the testimony James and Lilly Potter and a sworn statement from Peter Pettigrew. That was sufficient to hold him over for a secret trial under the Death Eater laws, in the course of which he apparently confessed to many crimes, most notably the use of the Imperius against a number of Wizengamot members found to have Dark Marks, including myself. I know for a fact that at least six of us who were freed by his testimony were, in fact, Death Eaters, and most of the others who served the Dark Lord and were acquitted thanks to him were much more ... more enthusiastic than I." He turned to Harry.
"Tiberius Nott, the father of your young friend, Theodore Nott, was among them."
"I know. By the way, thank you for taking Theo in last summer."
"I was happy to do so and am just as happy to do so again for the foreseeable future." The corner of Lucius's mouth twitched slightly. "His mother and I ... were students together. I was saddened by her passing."
Harry nodded. "Tiberius killed her, you know."
"I'd thought as much, Potter, but it's not something I can address in the near future save by doing what I can to protect young Theodore from his father's brutality. In any case, Regulus, to answer your question, I was quite surprised to learn that Sirius Black was a Death Eater. But then, I was equally surprised to learn the same about Barty Crouch's son. It seemed obvious at the time that the Dark Lord had been more successful in recruiting outside Slytherin House than had been generally thought."
"So you can't tell me anything about Sirius's conviction," Regulus said rather testily. "Other than the fact that it saved you and a bunch of other Death Eaters from Azkaban."
"Sirius saved more than me, Regulus. He saved Slytherin House itself. In the last days of the war, when it seemed clear that the Dark Lord drew preferentially from the House of the Snakes, there was a move in the Wizengamot to abolish Slytherin House entirely."
"How would that have worked?" Harry asked in shock.
"Oh, rather easily, I think. Simply brick over the passages leading to the dungeon. Then, reassign all the remaining Slytherin students randomly to other houses and do the same to any students who were later Sorted as Slytherins by the Hat. Those should-have-been Slytherins would spend their entire school years mis-Sorted into the wrong Houses and suffer the scorn of their Housemates for their dark natures that were insinuated by the Hat's original declarations."
Lucius took a deep breath as he recalled those days.
"And then, a miracle took place, as one of the most prominent Gryffindors of his generation was revealed to have been the Dark Lord's lieutenant and, moreover, confessed to being the one who used the Imperius on so many 'innocent Slytherins' thereby besmirching our House's reputation. To be honest, I'm quite grateful for Sirius's actions, even though I find it improbable that he was a Death Eater and impossible to believe that any of his confession was true."
"It wasn't," Harry said. "Last year, Voldemort acted like he'd never even heard Sirius Black's name before."
Regulus laughed in amazement. "You actually interrogated the Dark Lord about Sirius?!"
"More like struggled to come up with questions to stall for time before he decided to kill me. But yeah, he didn't recognize the name Sirius Black. And more importantly, he said that the Potters' Secret Keeper was someone who came to him only a week before he attacked Godric's Hollow, not someone who'd been working for him for years as Sirius's trial testimony seemed to show." He thought for a moment. "Is it possible to fake Veritaserum testimony?"
Regulus thought about it. "It's possible to fake your own testimony if your Occlumency is good enough. Just alter your own memories about what happened and then testify to the fake memories rather than what actually happened. But I can't imagine why Sirius would have done that to himself and altered his memories to make himself think he was a Death Eater when he wasn't. False Memory Charms might fool Veritaserum, but part of the trial testimony procedure is making the witness hold a Remembrall prior to testifying. Veritaserum trumps the Imperius and the Confundus, and I can't think of any other techniques that could get Sirius to confess to all those crimes that would neither have been completely obvious nor impossible to do in the amount of time available."
Then, Regulus smiled almost mischievously.
"Maybe I'll ask him about it when I see him."
Lucius looked at him severely. "Regulus? What are you scheming?" The other man didn't answer, but he did give a mean grin. Harry's eyes widened as once more connections slide into place.
"The research teams," he said in a quietly awestruck voice.
"What?" asked Lucius.
"All year long while disguised as Lockhart, Regulus has kept the top students here at the school working on various research projects. Some of them were just advanced defense techniques, but he also had people working on research into Memory Charms, the Patronus, an improved Portkey that can pass through anti-Portkey wards, even a group working on Polyjuice Potion that provided him with gallons of the stuff!" He turned to Regulus with an amazed expression.
"You plan to bust him out!" he exclaimed. "The real reason you came to Hogwarts was to gain the means to break Sirius Black out of Azkaban!"
Regulus laughed. "Oh Harry. You've hardly scratched the surface of my ambitions!"
Meanwhile in the Infirmary...
Ron opened his eyes cautiously and then sat up to look around the Infirmary. George was snoring softly in the bed next to him, and Jim looked like he was asleep in the bed on the opposite side of the room. The rest of the Weasleys ... were gone.
"Figures," he thought miserably. "They must know what I've done by now. That there's not a single member of our family I haven't betrayed in some way." He glanced over towards Jim's bed again. "Nor any friend."
Now that the power of the diary was broken, Ron found that he was starting to remember more and more. Not the inner thoughts of the dark wizard who had manipulated and enslaved him, thankfully. But he remembered everything he'd said and done while influenced by the diary, only now without the false emotions it had forced upon him. Worse, he was starting to remember the times when Tom had been in direct control. Hazy nightmarish memories, but they were there. The memories of riding around as a helpless passenger in his own body. Of sending the basilisk to petrify classmates. Of mocking Dumbledore before striking him down. Of stealing George's explosive runes and then using them to blow up the Mandrakes ... and nearly his own brothers. Of shooting Jim in the back with a Stunner. Of sending the Basilisk after the entire faculty. Of ordering it to kill Jim and Harry. But as bad as Ron's shame over his actions was, and as bad as his worry was over what everyone would think of him, his dominant emotion at the moment was fear. Not for himself, but for his friends. Voldemort had turned him into a weapon against Hogwarts, and there was nothing the boy could possibly do to stop the evil wizard if he decided to do it again.
Then, Ron's breath stopped for a second. "No," he thought. "There is one thing I can do. Something that's right instead of what's easy."
He sat up in his bed and looked around the room. The few inhabitants were either asleep or still petrified. Carefully, he slipped out of his bed. He started to reach for the wand sitting on his bedside table, but then he changed his mind and left it behind. It might get broken, and if it were intact, his parents could perhaps resell it. At least they'd have gotten something worthwhile from him. As quietly as possible, Ron crept to the door and out of the Infirmary.
Seconds later, as if alerted to some new danger, Jim awoke and looked around the room. Instantly, he saw Ron's empty bed, and his blood ran cold. "Bugger," he said under his breath.
Back in the Lair ...
"Okay," said Harry. "It's been a very long day, and I'm kind of exhausted. Plus, I'm going to have nightmares about everything we've talked about including Regulus's little bombshell. But before I go to bed, there's one last thing I'd like to talk about, and ... well, it's kind of sensitive."
"Oh?" Lucius asked, intrigued.
"Yes. There's ... no delicate way to put this, Mr. Malfoy, so I'll just come right out and say it. Last summer, someone tried to kill me with a doxy swarm and then with a cursed toy train a month later, and then they tried again at the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quiddith match." He took a deep breath. "Did, ah, you have anything to do with that by any chance?"
Lucius looked surprisingly offended. "Certainly not! I am, of course, aware of those ridiculous events, but while I have committed my fair share of sins, Mr. Potter, I am no fan of Le Grand Guignol!"
Harry blinked. "I have no idea what that means."
"He's offended that you would think he'd try to kill you by such clumsy, melodramatic, and horrific schemes," Regulus said with an amused chuckle.
"Oh," Harry replied nonplussed. "Sorry?"
"Mr. Potter," Lucius said patiently but firmly. "While I have not researched your life in depth, I have naturally made a preliminary study. If I had been inclined to kill you, I would have paid a visit to your late uncle at his place of employment, placed him under the Imperius Curse, and then instructed you to murder you in your sleep along with his own wife and son before setting fire to the house and killing himself in a way that would make the whole thing look accidental."
Harry adjusted his collar with one finger. He wasn't sure if the wards Dumbledore had put on the house would have prevented that fairly straightforward murder plot, but it certainly sounded like it would work.
"Now," Lucius continued, "what leads you to suspect that I might wish to kill you? And under such ludicrous circumstances?"
Harry hesitated. "If I tell you, will you ... I dunno, promise not to seek a terrible revenge against anyone?"
"No," Lucius said flatly. "But I will promise that any actions I take will be proportionate."
Harry figured that was the best deal he would get. "Your house elf Dobby came to me and warned me about the doxy swarm. And later, he put up a barrier at King's Cross Station in a failed effort to stop me from coming the Hogwarts. And I think he was involved in the rogue bludger incident somehow. Not the spiky one but the other one that seemed like it was trying to defend me at times before it finally knocked me out cold."
Lucius nodded and then turned to look at the center of the table. "Dobby!" With a crack, the strange little house elf appeared. It noticed both Lucius and Harry and immediately looked terrified.
"Dobby," Lucius said again, firmly but not unkindly. "I am not angry with you, but I do have questions that you will answer. Be advised that I am officially exercising Clause 19 of my marriage contract with your Mistress Narcissa. If you believe yourself forbidden to answer any question pursuant to the terms of the marriage contract, you will say 'Dobby is barred from answering.' If you find yourself unable to answer for any other reason, you will say 'Dobby cannot say.' Do you understand?" The elf nodded.
"Now, did my wife play any roll in the attacks on Harry Potter?"
"Dobby is barred from answering."
"Did she use Mogli to attack Mr. Potter?"
"Dobby is barred from answering."
"Did you attempt to protect Harry Potter even without being ordered to do so?"
"Yes, Master."
"Because you learned that he was in danger?"
"Yes, Master."
"And you learned this while at Malfoy Manor?"
"Yes, Master."
"Why did you feel compelled to protect Mr. Potter?"
"Dobby cannot say."
Lucius was silent for a moment before his next question. "Does your desire to protect Harry Potter outweigh your desire to be a good and loyal house elf in the service of House Malfoy."
Dobby didn't answer aloud, but after a brief hesitation, he shook his head yes.
Lucius sighed. "Mogli!" he called out. There was on response. He called again twice more before calling out "Lemmy!" Instantly, there was another house elf standing next to Dobby, one Harry didn't recognize. It was a female elf who looked somewhat distraught.
"Lemmy," Lucius said, "where is Mogli? Why does he not respond to my call?"
"Begging your pardon, Master Lucius, sir. But Mogli now answers only to the Mistress. She has exercised her rights under Clause 19 and is leaving Malfoy Manor as we speak. Oh, Master Lucius! What's to become of us?" The female elf seemed on the verge of tears.
Lucius grinned almost wolfishly. "We shall persevere, Lemmy. We shall rebuild. And one day, we shall take our revenge. Return to the Manor. Prepare a meal consisting of all my favorite foods. And dry your tears! For tonight we celebrate!" Lemmy nodded and then popped away.
"What the hell was all that about?" Regulus asked in confusion. "Why are you so chipper all of the sudden?"
"Because as of ten seconds ago, I am divorced. And I have also just lost approximately seventy-five percent of the gold in my Gringotts Vault."
"That's awful!" said Harry in a horrified voice.
"Yes, well, it certainly would be if that were still where I kept the bulk of my liquid assets," the man said with a somewhat vicious smile. He studied Dobby who swallowed nervously, before turning back to Harry.
"Now then," he said. "I have a quandary. I cannot tolerate a disloyal house elf in my service, but neither can I allow my wife to continue her efforts to kill you, Mr. Potter. If nothing else, it might reflect badly on me if she succeeded. The solution to both these problems is simple. How would you like to purchase a house elf?"
Dobby looked at Lucius in confusion. Then, a light seemed to go off as he understood what the man was saying, and he turned to Harry with a hopeful expression.
"Um," Harry said uncertainly. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"Well, the alternative is for me to simply kill Dobby. Is that preferable?"
"Eek!" squeaked the now terrified Dobby who looked like he was about to start wailing. Harry scowled.
"That's manipulative and underhanded, Mr. Malfoy."
"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Your compliment is appreciated."
Harry sighed. "So how much do house elves go for?"
"Generally between five and ten thousand galleons depending on the elf's age and general competency, but I'm feeling magnanimous so ... one sickle?"
Harry felt for his money pouch and then remembered it was in his trunk. He looked up at Regulus sheepishly. "By any chance, do you have a sickle I could borrow?"
Regulus laughed and reached into his pocket.
Meanwhile atop the Astronomy Tower ...
It was cold up on top of the tower, despite the warm May night. Ron stared out into the distance to take in the view. The moon was bright, and even at night he was struck by the beauty of the Scottish countryside and the lights of Hogsmeade in the distance. Then, he looked down out of the window towards the grounds far below and shuddered. It was a long way down, and he wondered how much it would hurt to hit the bottom. He wished he'd had the time to write a goodbye note, but he was afraid of being discovered and interrupted. And anyway, in light of what he'd done, Ron assumed that the reaction of most people to his death would be relief that the Heir of Slytherin would trouble them no more. An actual suicide note might perversely cause people to miss him and feel guilty about his death, and he didn't want that. With luck, his family would assume that some residual mind control of the diary made him do it and that it wasn't anything that could have been prevented. He hoped that no one would think him a coward, but they probably would anyway. Which was ironic in a way, since Ron felt that this might be the bravest thing he'd ever done – killing himself to ensure that Voldemort could never use him again.
Slowly and carefully, he climbed up onto the parapet, almost laughing at his own caution. It was as though he was afraid of falling accidentally before he had a chance to jump of his own free will. He looked down again and felt just a touch of vertigo, but he closed his eyes to shut it out. He took a deep breath ...
... and jumped.
"ACCIO RON WEASLEY!"
For a second, Ron felt weightless before the spell caught him and yanked him back onto the tower. He landed near the doorway and looked up into the face of a furious Jim Potter.
"YOU IDIOT!" the other boy bellowed in a rage. "Do you know what I went through to save your life! I took a BLOODY BASILISK FANG for you! I was willing to DIE to save you! And now you want to THROW IT ALL AWAY!"
Ron closed his eyes and laid back on the cold stone floor of the Astronomy Tower. "You wouldn't have had to face the Basilisk if you'd just killed me to start with. Harry had the right idea."
"What?"
"It means, while you were fighting the Basilisk, Harry was keeping Tom occupied. I don't remember what they talked about, but I remember Tom feeling afraid of Harry. Because Harry knew I was Tom's real weapon, not the snake. And if he'd killed me, I'd have deserved it."
"The hell you would have!" Jim snapped. Then, he paused and tried to rein in his anger. "Ron, what happened to you wasn't your fault. People a lot older and more experienced and stronger than you have been taken in by Voldemort. Experience adult wizards and witches who he put under the Imperius and made do all kinds of horrible things. No one is going to hold any of this year against you!"
Ron barked out a broken laugh. "Yeah, Jim. Pull the other one. I know exactly how people are going to treat me after this year because I know first hand how every treated you! I know because I got them to do it! And I know first hand how everyone in this school will absolutely hate someone who they think is a future dark wizard and a servant of You-Know-Who."
Jim sat down on the floor next to Ron. "Ron? Would you have done any of that if you hadn't been under Voldemort's control?"
The boy shook his head.
"Look, Ron. Do you remember leaving the diary in my room this morning?" Ron nodded again. As he thought about it, it seemed incredible that it had just been this morning. It seemed like a lifetime away. "Well, I used the diary myself, and Tom pulled me into one of his memories and tried to keep me trapped there."
Ron's eyes went wide. "Oh Merlin, Jim! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean ...!"
"Shut up! That's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted you to know that Tom talked about how he was able to control you by reshaping your emotions. But he said that the one thing he couldn't make you do, at least not at first, was to turn against me. He was only ever able to do so because of the shock you felt when I got outed as a Parselmouth. And that was my own damned fault! If I'd been honest with you about it – if I hadn't been so ashamed of my Parseltongue that I couldn't even tell my best friend – you might have resisted for longer and we might have figured things out even before the petrifications started."
"You're just blaming your self to cheer me up, Jim, but you don't know ..." Ron broke down at that point, his tears flowing freely. "You were in the diary, I know, but you were fighting back. And ... and so he came for me. He ... came and wanted to take me over. Needed my body to stun you – sniff– And I tried to fight him. But he... but he..." By this point, the boy was sobbing and barely able to talk.
"He put spiders inside me! They –sniff– would crawl up my throat and fill my mouth! And ... and... I couldn't breathe and there were so many of them and all those hairy little legs!" Jim darted forward and pulled the other boy into a hug before he could go into a full blown panic attack. "And I said yes! I couldn't stand it and I said yes if only he'd stop even though I knew he was evil and was going to hurt people and hurt you! Oh God, Jim! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
Jim didn't speak. He just held Ron in a tight hug and said "Shhh" over and over until the boy began to calm.
"It's okay, Ron. I forgive you. I promise I forgive you for anything you think you need to be forgiven for. He tortured you and you fought him better than most people could have. You may not believe it, but I'm proud of you. I'm proud and ... like I said on your birthday, I want my friend back!"
Ron pulled back. "You can't. You need a better friend than me, Jim. How could you ever trust me again? I had V-Voldemort inside my head!"
"You're the best friend I've ever had or ever will, Ron Weasley. And I do trust you. Voldemort's gone. You don't have any part of him inside you anymore."
Ron put his head down into his hands for several seconds as he thought about Jim's words. Finally, he looked back up into Jim's eyes. His own were red-rimmed and wet with tears, and there was something in them that looked so full of despair that it nearly broke Jim's heart.
"Are you sssso ssssure of that, Jim Potter?" Ron hissed.
Jim stared hard into the shattered, tear-stained face of Ron Weasley, Hogwarts' newest Parselmouth.
"Huh," he finally said in a remarkable feat of understatement.
The next (and possibly last) chapter of Harry Potter and the Secret Enemy will be posted sometime between June 1 and June 3. It's the Year 2 epilogue that will wrap up the last loose ends and set up Year 3, but at this point, I'm not sure if it will all fit in a single chapter. We'll see how it goes.
AN 1: I got horribly behind this week, so I'm afraid this chapter is riddled with typos. Let me know in comments if anything looks horribly wrong and I'll fix it by Monday.