Chapter 17: Interruptions

Medea

"We should go now, before anyone notices that we are gone. This has taken too much time already," I said, only wanting to leave.

Tom stepped back from me and we left the Chamber of Secrets. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders as soon as we reached the entrance.

Now standing between bones and the evidence that Slytherin's Basilisk was gigantic, we looked at the slide.

"Well, I think a clever charm will do the trick. We just have to climb up and make our feet stick to the stone." I said, exhausted after this nightly adventure.

"I agree." Tom seemed to be just as tired as I was.

Back up in the bathroom, we sat down on the floor a couple of minutes, panting heavily.

"That was a long tube," I observed.

After getting up we left in different directions. He kissed me good-bye briefly. And I started to wonder on my way to the dungeons.

What we were, how this could happen and above anything else, what would this mean for us?

Would we marry one day and have children? While he would work for the Ministry and I stayed home, like a good girl ?

This was all ludicrous, we weren't like that. I expected more from my life, more adventure. I smiled to myself, knowing that Tom would have answered these questions the same way.

We will see, I thought.

When I was walking around the last corner seperating me from the Slytherin dungeons, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eyes.

I stopped and turned, and yes, I was right.

Druella Rosier was standing on the other side of the corridor, halfway up the stairs.

Her face was barely visible, only illuminated by a torch several metres away from her. Despite the low light I could see that she was shooting daggers at me with her eyes. All of a sudden her face changed and a little knowing smile settled on her lips. I continued my way, slightly disturbed.

Thinking about it even in bed, seconds from falling asleep.

Tom

"There you are. I've been waiting for you for far too long."

Druella smiled at me apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Riddle."

"Well, now that you have finally arrived, we can call it a night." The annoyance I felt was not enough to make me angry. Not now. I have found the chamber of secrets, at last.

Still, there was this warm feeling in my chest, caused only by the conversation with Medea. Even now, just to think her name made everything better and more promising.

The events of tonight had made our bond even stronger, I felt in the way she would lean into me when we touched. Like she was relying on me. Trusting me.

I could hardly wait to see her again. The fact that I thought about the small distance between us and how I could minimize it concerned me a bit for a moment or two.

The change between us didn't go unnoticed, or maybe it was just the way I behaved.

Mulciber and Lestrange stopped next to me in the common room, waiting to accompany me to breakfast.

"Go. I'll be in the Great Hall soon."

Slightly startled, they obeyed and I kept standing next to the fire, since it was getting quiet chilly lately.

Medea entered the room after a couple of minutes. Annis and Belvina Black were with her, as always. Following her every step like shadows.

She stopped when she saw me and a confused expression crossed her face, then she finally came up to me.

I just smiled at her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek, before taking my arm to leave.

Mulciber had the sense not to seat himself next to me in Transfiguration class. While Dumbledore droned on about ways of transfiguring an object into an animal, I glanced over at her. She was brooding over a book, evidently not Transfiguration. Dumbledore either didn't notice this or cared too little to interrupt her.

I brushed my hand against her's, which made her look at me questioningly.

Following my gaze to her book, a little smirk was spreading on her lips.

All I could tell was that different rituals were mentioned and that it was a way of discovering a part of one's soul.

I took a small piece of parchment and wrote down one word.

Animagi ?

She wrote quickly back in her elegant handwriting.

It interests me, that's all.

Of course. I pressed her hand briefly and turned back towards Dumbledore.

His monolgue was interrupted by a curt knock on the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore said in his oddly soft voice.

A man entered who was dressed completely in black. Even his shoulder-length hair and full beard were jet-black. His pale blue eyes took in the class in front of him.

He spoke in a rough voice, but sounded very well-mannered. His cloak was of a fine material and he wore a suit underneath it, like a muggle. The black tie made him look like an undertaker.

"Please excuse my intrusion, Professor. I was instructed to take one of your students to London."

A murmur went through the room before Dumbledore answered.

"May I ask who that would be ?"

"Miss Medea Crane."

She stared at this stranger with knitted eyebrows.

Nonetheless she stood up and packed her things, while shooting me a worried look.

Within a minute, she was gone.

Medea

We had left Hogwarts in silence. Now, as we were passing the gates to the grounds, did the stranger talk for the first time alone to me.

"Your father was injured on a mission. I will apperate with you to St. Mungo's Hospital and wait while you talk to your father. You will be taken back to school soon by a Ministry employee."

I let that sink in for a minute on our way to Hogsmeade. I wasn't that surprised, after all, my father had a dangerous job. But to be taken out of school and brought to London...that alarmed me.

White. So much white. The stranger, who had not talked to me since we left Hogwarts, guided me through the seemingly endless corridors without stopping at the front desk first.

He eventually stopped next to a door that looked like all the others. Taking a deep breath, I entered and walked to the figure lying in an impeccably white bed.

I sat down next to him and took his hand.

"Father ?"

There was a short pressure from his fingers. His face was unnaturally pale, but his lips curled into a smile when he saw me.

"There you are. I was wondering if they would bring you to me." His voice sounded weak and his chest and arms were heavily bandaged.

"What happened ?"

"You know I cannot tell you. But it's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine."

"Good. I hope you will take your time to recover, even though that means I have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas."

He gave a low chuckle and we sat in silence for a couple of minutes.

"After losing your mother and Atlas, I..."

He broke off, trying to collect himself.

"I wanted to make sure that you were safe. That you could protect yourself. I never expected you to become this powerful at such a young age. You are more ambitious than I would have thought. I'm sorry, that this had to happen to you."

"I know what you did had to be done."

He seemed relieved at my words.

"I am proud of you. The Ministry has an eye on you by the way. They want you to join the Auror Office once you graduate. It is unusual to handpick Aurors, but not unheard of."

"I don't know what I am going to do after school. Maybe just travelling around for a while." My thoughts trailed of to all the exciting places I had read about.

"Well, you have enough time to figure it all out. It's not like I would marry you off to some cousin, like the Blacks do."

"This whole blood-purity thing is quiet disturbing, don't you think ?"

"I agree. It didn't bother me when I was in Slytherin, but after I had seen the world and how it actually works...Let's just say my horizon was broadened."

I can't tell why I brought him up, probably because I wanted to tell somebody about us, to confide in someone.

"Father, I...do you remember Tom Riddle ?"

"Wasn't he the boy you talked to shortly before the second attack ?"

I nodded and he stared at me inquiringly.

"He has become quiet special to me. I think you would like him."

My father sighed deeply.

"This had to happen, sooner or later. However, I would have prefered it to be much later. Tell me about him."

"He is the best student in our year, besides myself of course. He is a Parselmouth, too. And more like me than anybody I have ever met."

"If that is the case, well, I will probably like him. Parseltongue, that is interesting. What about his family ?"

"He is an orphan. His mother died after giving birth and the whereabouts of his father are unknown or if he is alive at all. Only that he is, or was, a muggle and his mother a witch."

He grunted a response.

"Orphanage...Well, if you haven't lost interest in him by summer, ask him to stay the summer with us. I would like to get to know him."

This answer surprised me. I thought he would never accept my relationship with Tom. However, why he would I ciuldn't say. And here he was, inviting him into his house. Behaving as if it was a natural consequence of my interest in Tom.

Tom

Three days had passed without a sign of her. My knights had tried to encounter me as little as possible, I have to admit that I was in a very dark mood indeed.

The only thing that helped was the Chamber of Secrets. For the first time I had called the monster and Medea was right. It was a Basilisk.

Excitement was rushing through me and I tried to find out as much as I could about this creature in the library. And if I was not reading up on my new pet, I was trying to find more about my ancestors. Salazar Slytherin was quite an interesting fellow, I have to admit.

But as I was sitting at dinner, my thoughts went back to her. And her note. At the evening of her departure, I found a piece of parchment on my pillow. It said:

I'll be back soon.

Soon. We obviously didn't have the same understanding of this word.

Medea

"I will visit on Christmas Day, Father." I gave him a peck on his then rosy cheeks.

He caught my hand and said with a melancholic smile: "When you were little, you used to call me Dad."

Speechless for a moment, I was struck by the tenderness in his voice. It had been like this, these last three days.

"It is shorter. More useful, I think. So, I have to get back to school. But I will write and demand answers. Good Night, Dad."

A Ministry employee was waiting for me outside of the room, ready to take me back.

"I will apperate with you to Hogsmeade, but you'll have to get up to the castle by yourself. I have no time for this."

He was short and chubby, bald and had a big mustouche.

"Very well," I said icily.

And so he did. Seconds later we were standing in front of 'The Three Broomsticks' and with a little pop he disappeared again.

Rolling my eyes at this rude behavior, I walked towards the castle, hoping I would be just in time for dinner.

I was outside the Gates when I heard something. I stopped and turned around, only to jump aside a second later. The blue light hit the tree behind me and I drew my wand to send back several hexes. A figure emerged from the dark woods, it was a women with blond curly hair. She cast more spells my way, trying to keep my attention from the other figure looming in the shadows behind me. But I could see the movement out of the corner of my eyes and produced a shield charm before sending an especially dark curse towards the hidden person.

It caught him or her by surprise, fell to the ground and didn't seem to move.

The women in front of me was screaming like a wounded animal and ran towards me, sending curses left, right and centre.

But I was quicker and made a root move slightly up, which made her fall down hard. I got her with the ultimate curse and she stopped to move, while green light emerged from my wand.

There won't be a fourth time, I thought.

I turned her body around and saw that she was middle-aged. The necklace she was wearing caught my attention. It was silver, with a big gleaming red stone in the middle. Quiet ostentatious. I took it off and turned it in my hands.

There was something engraved on the back.

Lus ad Bellum

Right to war.

My heart stopped for a second, before I regained my composure and levitated the lifeless bodies into the forest nearby.

These were the words of one well-known wizarding family.

The Rosiers.

I didn't care to look at the male figure, they were no threat anymore.

Druella's smile now made sense. She knew.