"Baby." Castor says, pointing to the little bundle in Isabel's arms. He only knows four words and baby is one of them. "Baby." He repeats again as he chews on his sleeve.

"Yes, baby." She confirms as she closes her eyes and rests her head against the wall. Her body is completely sore and she's so tired. It's hard to stay awake and not just pass out on the floor but two little boys are keeping her awake. "What should we name your brother, Castor?" She asks, just to stay awake.

He doesn't answer and he begins chewing on her shoe. Normally she would tell him to take that out of his mouth and that it was gross to do so, but she can't bring herself to say that now. He has to be hungry and she is positively starving. The pain between her legs is alarming and she can barely move with out wanting to cry. She would give anything to have a bed right now but her worry is over riding everything right now. The new baby needs to see a Medi-wizard. What if something is wrong? He needs immunization spells and all that other stuff that all babies need right away to stay healthy. She stifles a groan and holds the new baby closer to her chest.

The door opens but she doesn't even open her eyes. "I see the potion worked." A smug voice says and she cracks her eyes open to see the slick man standing in the door way with his arms crossed. He walks in and closes the door behind him. " We had bets going on how long it would take you to pop that kid out." He says, eyeing with distaste all the blood and birthing after effects on the ground. "I lost. I placed you at two hours."

"Why?" she manages to ask with a soar throat. Why did they do this to her? "He needs to see a doctor." She says, instead of waiting for an answer.

He walks closer to her and kneels down in front of her. "He'll be fine." He says dismissively. "After all he is the son of the 'Greatest Dark Wizard in the world'…is he not?" With a smirk he pulls back some of the material covering the new born's head. Isabel is too tired to even protest. "Ah, I see this one is a red head. Must get that from you." He says, flicking a glance up at her hair that clings to her forehead and neck from all the sweat.

"What do you want from me?"

"I think you know what." He says, giving her a creepy smile.

"How do you even know he's a halfblood?" she asks, the only way she guessed was because he told her that his last name was a dirty muggle name. "Where did all this come from? Aren't you fighting for the same thing?"

He stands up and looks down at her with a tilted head. "You know, Harry Potter and his league of idiots were actually on to something. Towards the end of the war they started handing out pamphlets talking about The Dark Lord and his parentage. Proving that his father was a muggle and he was liar." He walks away and looks out the window. "You know, at first I didn't even care. I mean, I didn't believe it obviously. I believed in the Dark Lord and what he stood for but just by chance I stumbled across the name Tom Riddle, everyone says that's what you call him… and then I did some research and the Order story checked out."

"So?" she says tiredly. Not really understanding why it matters as long as they're killing mudbloods or whatever it is they want to do.

"So?" he asks back as he turns around. "I won't take orders or listen to someone with dirty blood running through their veins. Who does he think he is?" He realizes he's sounded insane so he takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his slicked back hair. "We should be led by example, not by a lie."

She doesn't answer… she doesn't have anything to say to that so she just stares at him as he paces around the room. Castor drops the shoe and begins whining again because he's hungry. "What now?" She asks after a few moments of listening to him cry.

"Now?" he asks back like a crazy person. "Now we see if you were telling the truth." He sees the confusion on her face and he smiles again. "You said that if we stab him with a stake of silver then he dies… I find it rather ridiculous and forgive me if I don't believe you, but we will test your theory out. Just in case you were being truthful."

He snaps his fingers and a group of people come in. One of the men hands a pointed silver stake to him and two others take Castor and the baby from her tired arms. Her eyes become wide and frightened and she tries to stand but from all the trauma her body went through she can't and she falls again.

"We assume that you are under the same spells and potions that your husband is." He says with a tilt of his eyebrows. "So if you die after we stab you then we know you were telling the truth… if you live then we know you were lying and your son… well I guess it's plural now isn't it?" He laughs and so do the other people in the room. She glares. "Your sons will die if you don't." He looks behind him at the two men holding her children. "Take them out of the room."

"Wait." She says, trying to stand up again on shaky legs. "Wait, don't take them." she says desperately as Castor cries and reaches for her and the new baby cries because of the noise.

"Do you want them to be in the room when I do this?" he asks cruelly. She looks down feeling totally hopeless. "I didn't think so."

The two men leave the room with her crying children in their arms and the broad woman with beady eyes grabs her and stands her up straight. She inhales deeply, waiting for the pain that's about to come.

"Now," he says conversationally as he walks right in front of her. "Where should I put this?" he asks. Tapping the silver stake against her arm. "You're heart? Or maybe just your stomach? Or… there are many other interesting places…."

This is going to hurt. She closes her eyes and tries to place her self somewhere else as the man teases her by playing the sharp point of the stake all over her skin. The point stops just above her heart and tears fall from her eyes. She knows this won't kill her. It will hurt like hell, but it won't kill her which means they'll kill her children. If she didn't fail as a parent before she definitely did now.

"Look at me." He says, his voice sounding dark. She opens her eyes and looks into his deep, almost black eyes as he brings back the stake to ram it into her chest.

A strange siren sound makes him pull back and Isabel finally releases a breath of air as he looks around the room.

"Someone just broke the wards." He says as he runs over to the window. The broad woman lets go of Isabel and she slumps to the ground, unable to hold herself up any longer.

"Perhaps it was just a raccoon again." A skinny man offers as he walks up behind him and looks over his shoulder. "This happened last week too and it was nothing."

"For some reason I have a feeling that is not the case." He spits out hatefully. He looks over his shoulder and glares at Isabel. "We're not finished here." He tells her. He hands the silver to someone beside him and takes out his wand. He walks up to her and glares down at her with as much hate as a person can posses. "Your husband just killed your two children. I hope you thank him for that." He turns to the skinny man. "Stay here and watch her. When I send the signal do the spells." He sneers at her again. "If we can't kill you then we'll send you back to him deformed." He says before leaving the room with his followers behind him.

A nervous, frightened flutter is in her stomach as she stares at the skinny man who's watching her nervously with twitchy eyes. Everything is so silent that's it's almost maddening. She watches the skinny boy as he clutches his wand in his sweaty palms. An over whelming sense of protectiveness is washing over her as she thinks of her two children.

"I'm sure if you remove this chain from my leg, I can convince my husband to give you a quick death." She says as the boy flinches at her voice. He'll probably pee his pants too.

Something makes her strong and she stands up on her shaky legs to look at him. In her hands she clutching the jagged piece of glass that she used to cut the umbilical cord earlier. "If you help me get out of this room… I'll tell him you were nice to me."

"Shut up." He says with a shaky voice. He points his wand at her. "Shut up. Stop talking." She walks closer to him and nervousness makes his shake. There are thumps heard outside and curses being shouted. "Stop moving. Stay where you are."

She looks behind her to see how much chain she has left to move and then she looks back at him. He's with in reaching distance. Suddenly she lunges at him and the piece of glass becomes lodged in his throat with a quick movement of her hand. It all happened so fast that he couldn't respond and she twists the glass in his throat a little deeper as he slumps to the ground and gurgles blood. Her hands are totally covered with his red blood and she glares at him before taking his wand and sending a spell to the chain around her ankle.

It breaks and she's free. A mild healing charm helps her to walk and she runs out of the room. Into the fight that's taking place in the down stairs hallway.

X

Tom works his way through the throng of people. With a slight flick of his wand people who are attempting to duel with him go flying back. When he enters the house he takes a moment to take in his surroundings with scarlet eyes. His sharp ears can hear faint crying coming from one of the upstairs rooms letting him know that his children are still alive. That's a good sign.

A bulky woman with beady eyes charges him and he almost laughs at the determined look on her face if the situation wasn't so serious. She has a silver stake in her hands as she runs towards him and he lifts an eyebrow before hitting her with a stunning spell and watching her fall to the ground, totally out cold. Curses fly past his head, lighting up the hallway with shades of greens, purples, and blues. Something catches his eyes at the top of the stairs and his gaze travel up the railing to the person standing there looking at him.

She's only wearing a thin shirt and the wool skirt that she was wearing the day she went missing. A sense of relief washes through him as she gives him a soft little smile that shows she's pleased, and more then relieved, to see him. His eyes flick quickly over her body. She has blood between her legs, all over her shirt, covering her hands, and splattered on her face. He narrows his eyes when he sees this but the look on her face reassures him that most of the blood isn't hers.

A loud cry from their son makes both of them refocus their gaze and she runs towards the noise without another glance at him. He starts to run up the stairs, to follow her, to help, but a curse flies past his face opening four cuts along his cheek. With scarlet eyes he turns around half way up the stairs and glares down at the man pointing the wand up at him.

Dark eyes stare up at him and with a sneer the slick man yells another curse. Tom easily reflects it as he slowly walks down the stairs, one step at a time as he looks the man up and down.

"Why, Marcus, I haven't seen you in ages." He says as he lifts his wand and sends the man who has been holding his family hostage into another room. He hits his back against the wall and breaks apart the plaster. "I should have known this was your doing." He says as he follows him into the room. "You never really did like me, did you?"

Marcus, the slick man, stands up quickly. Trying not to fumble or shake by this fight he finds himself in. "I told you not to do this." He says hatefully, trying to stall time. "I told you that your kids were dead if you did this but you don't care. You don't care about anything but yourself, you dirty halfblood!" Another weak curse gets deflected by Tom, it's almost too easy. Since Dumbledore died it's almost boring to duel other wizards… there's no challenge in it.

"You're Grandfather is going to be so disappointed in you." Tom says with a sneer as he sends a curse to Octavian Mulciber's grandson. "Maybe I should let him do the honor of getting rid of you, unless of course he doesn't die from the shame of having you in his family."

"He was the one who told me about you." He says hatefully. Trying and failing to curse him again. "He was the one who told me what your name was. Tom Riddle. Just like your muggle father."

"You are being so dramatic that it's pitiful." Tom says with a roll of his eyes.

"You're sons are dead now. I hope you're happy. You can kill me but your children are dead because of you."

Tom walks very close to him and snatches the wand away from his stunned hand. He was too scared to move. He gets so close that they're almost touching. Marcus is visibly shaking. "You had better hope your words are not true because I will make you live forever just so I can torture you every day of my life… and I will be around for a very, very long time. So for your sake I hope you're wrong."

He stuns him. The man thumps on the ground and Tom orders a few of his followers to carry him out of the house. He has big plans for him later. Most of the other people in the house are rounded up and Tom makes his way up the stairs with out much interruption. The first room that he looks in has a dead man with a piece of glass sticking out from his neck. A chain attached to the wall is thrown on the floor and blood is all over the floor. There are no more noises now and he's almost worried as he opens the second door and finds an empty bedroom with a closet full of clothes. He slams the door and goes to the third room.

When he opens it he nearly drops his wand. Three dead bodies lie off to the side of the room. He doesn't know the men that are lying there dead, but he doesn't spare them a second glance as he sees his wife down on her knees pointing her wand to Castor's chest. Tom steps into the room and looks on the bed. A small baby is sound asleep, still very much alive, and wrapped in a bloody sweater. He's relieved to see the baby breathing but Isabel's voice makes him look to her again.

"Come on, come on." She says with tears in her eyes as she bends down and breaths into Castor's mouth. She doesn't seem to see him in the room. She pulls back up again and starts pumping on his chest with her hands, having discarded her wand to the side.

"What are you doing?" he asks and she snaps her head up. He looks down at Castor who has his eyes closed and his lips are as pale as his skin.

"He's not breathing." She says pitifully. "Tom, he's not breathing. Make him breathe."

Tom gets down on his knees, beside his son, and runs his fingers over his face. He feels cold. "What curse did they use on him?" he asks as Isabel tries to resuscitate him again.

"I don't know." She says with a sob as she sits back on his knees. "I just came in here and one of the guys was standing over him and he wasn't breathing…He still has a pulse. Make him better." She says to him, like he would know how. "Make him breathe again." She says, almost angrily, looking him directly in the eyes. "You fix this. You make him better now."

"I don't know what's wrong with him." He says softly as he takes out his wand and starts doing every healing and reviving spell that he knows.

"Don't let him die." She says softly as she looks down at the little boy. "Tom, please don't let him die." She looks at him again with her brows furrowed. "This is your fault! If he dies I will never forgive you."

He looks at her with a clenched jaw and then tries a few more spells and counter curses. He checks the one year olds pulse again with two fingers against his neck and tries not to show the panic in his face. It's weak, dangerously weak. He sits back and rubs his face. "Okay, we have to get him to a medi-wizard." He says, trying to take action quickly. He stands and picks Castor up in his arms. The boy lies limp against his body and Tom tries not to be effected by it.

"Wait." Isabel says as she stands and walks closer to him. She starts to fiddle with the locket around her neck. "Take this off of me. You're the only one who can." She says breathlessly. "Take this off and put it on him."

Quickly he takes the necklace off of her neck and places it over his son's head. Nothing much changes but it gives both their troubled minds a sense of ease. "I'm going to St. Mungo's. I want you to go home and wait for me. Is that clear?" he says quickly as he gets ready to apparate.

Isabel nods her head and wipes away a few tears. Before he leaves she grabs his face and kisses him hard on the mouth, leaving blood all over the side of his face. He looks her in the eyes and then pulls back and pops away, running into St. Mungo's as fast as he possibly can.

He didn't miss that final look on her face, though. It meant come back with him or don't come back at all. He doesn't have time to ponder that as he storms to the front desk demanding that his son gets taken care of now by the best doctor in the whole place. Nervously they all scurry around trying to accommodate him and he has to sit out in the waiting room while Medi-wizards and witches try to revive his unconscious son. When one nurse comes up to him and nervously hands him a glass of water, taking in the scratches and blood on his face, his glares at her.

"I don't want to make anyone here nervous. I want everyone to do their proper jobs well." He says calmly, looking right into her frightened green eyes. "But I want all of you to know that if they don't figure out what is wrong with my son and if they don't save him tonight. I will probably burn this whole place down with every single one of you in it."

The nurse gulps and shakes her head before running out of the room.

X

As soon as she got home she handed the baby off to the house-elves and maids to be properly cleaned, clothed, and looked after. She walks into the front sitting room in a daze, vaguely concerned with the fact that they haven't even named him yet. He doesn't have a name…She shakes her head. She has bigger things to worry about now. She brings her hand up to nervously bite her fingers but she stops herself when she sees her hands completely covered with blood.

Suddenly feeling disgusted she runs to the bathroom and washes her hands in the sink. The water turns red as she runs her fingers under the tap and she scrubs with soap so hard that she thinks she might scrub off her skin. Holding back tears she flicks a glance up at the mirror. The side of her face is splattered with more blood. Blood. Blood. It's everywhere. She inhales deeply and tries not to shake and tries not to worry.

Quickly she strips out of her clothes and turns on the shower. She steps into the scolding hot water and just stands there, not moving, not blinking as the clean water washes her body. Finally, after a while of staring blankly at the tiled wall she takes a wash cloth and runs it over her skin. Her fingers work shampoo in her hair and once she's done she steps out onto the rug. She grabs a towel and wraps it around her body. Telling herself that Tom will be back soon, and that Castor will be back, and that they will make the people who were responsible for this pay.

She walks to her bedroom and quietly opens the door so she can get dressed in clean clothes. The moonlight dances in through the window and falls across the bed. Calpurnia sleeps soundly with her arm over Madelyn's back. They look so peaceful and comfortable. Like nothing is wrong. Isabel sniffs and wipes away more tears as she quietly gets dressed. She doesn't want to wake them, she doesn't want to talk to them, or explain to them what's happening. She doesn't want to have to worry about anything else.

Once she's dressed she walks with light steps to the red nursery, where a maid is rocking the new baby back and forth in a rocking chair. She goes over to them, without even saying a word and takes the baby from the maid's nervous arms.

"When your father comes home you'll have a name." she tells him as she cradles him against her chest. Wanting comfort from someone, anyone.

She walks back down stairs and sits heavily on the couch, back in the front room. She holds the little baby in her arms and stares into the fire. Trying not to go crazy. Two hours later the doors open and she runs to the main hallway, leaving the new born alone in the room in the little white bassinet.

"Tom, is he alright?" she asks as she runs up to her husband. The little boy isn't with him and she narrows her eyes dangerously. "Where is he? Where is he!?" she asks and almost starts to hit him.

He takes a deep breath before taking her hand. "He's still at St. Mungo's."

"Then why are you here?! You need to go back and stay with him!"

"Isabel." He says harshly, trying to get her attention. "Calm down." She stops yelling and looks at him. He touches her face. "He's fine. They were able to counteract the curse and he's breathing perfectly now." She lets out a relieved breath and smiles, hugging him closely. "They just need to keep him over night to make sure everything stays stabilized."

She pulls back and kisses him, feeling light and happy at the news he just gave her. "That's wonderful news." She says against his lips before getting closer to him and kissing him again. She pulls back with her arms around his neck. "We have to go back, though. He can't stay there by himself." She says seriously again.

Tom shakes his head. "You have to stay here. We have other children if you remember."

"Tom…"

He cuts her off again. "I'll go back. I just wanted to come home and tell you what was happening." She shakes her head and looks down. "And… isn't there someone I should meet?" he asks, tilting his head to catch her eyes.

"Oh," She looks up at him and smiles. "Yes, there is." She says, taking his hand and walking him towards the room with the bassinet. "I almost forgot." She says to herself as she opens the door and leads him over to the sleeping baby. "He needs a name." she says as Tom scorgifies himself so he can hold the baby. He takes off his black gloves and puts them in his pocket as he studies him.

Most of the blood is cleaned off as he reaches down and picks the clean little baby up, cradling him in his arms.. He looks down at the little baby and a warm smile spreads across his face but the more he allows himself to think about it the more upset he becomes.

"He shouldn't have been born in that filthy house." He says angrily as he runs his fingers over the baby's cheek. "No son of mine should have been born in such filth."

A cool hand on his neck makes him turn. Isabel is looking up at him with a sweet smile on her face. "He's here, though. He's alive." She says softly. "I gave birth to him all by myself. Like some tribal woman." She smiles again. "Aren't you proud of me?"

"Immensely." He admits as he leans down and kisses her forehead. He's also immensely proud that she managed to kill four people in that foul house as well. He sits down on one of the dark leather chairs and holds the baby out in front of him. He rakes his head from the bottom of his little feet all the way up to the soft blue hat on his head. "He does need a name."

Isabel nods her head and gets down on her knees beside his chair so she can see the baby's face. "I want to show you something." She says as she reaches out and removes the hat that the maids placed on his head. "Not all of them will take after you." She says with a smirk.

Tom smiles at the little wisps of red hair on the new borns head. "He's a carrot top."

Isabel laughs. "Oh, don't say that." She sits up and kisses the little boys cheek. "He's not that orange."

"Atticus." Tom says after a few moments of silence.

"What?"

"His name." he says looking at the baby. "His name will be Atticus."

"Why Atticus?" she asks, not sure if she likes it.

He smirks. "It's a family name."

She doesn't ask him to elaborate and she nods her head in acceptance. "Atticus Lennox Riddle." He looks at her but she doesn't move her eyes from the baby. "You said if we had another boy we could use my father's name. So we are." He rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything. "What happened to the people who did this?" she asks quietly, like it would hurt the baby's ears. "What did you do to them?"

"Nothing yet." He says and she frowns at him. He leans down and kisses her one last time. "When Castor comes home I'll make sure to make an example of them. It won't be pretty." He reassures her and even though she shouldn't, even though it's morbid, she smiles.

After a few more minutes of him getting to know his new son he leaves the house with a kiss to the top of his head. He goes back to St. Mungo's where he ignores the rules and stays in the room with his one year old son. He sits down in the chair with his arms crossed as he watches the little boy breathe in an out with a mad gleam in his eyes. Thinking of all the things he's going to do to Marcus and his gang of fools. Quite the example they will be…