-Chapter Two-
Borgin and Burke's
Tom strolled down Diagon Alley nervously on the 2nd of December, clasped in his hands his school transcript and recommendations from his teachers, his defeat at the job interview for the teaching position had really put Tom out, and now he felt butterflies unleashed in his stomach that he could not believe, they were so bad that he could not keep down any food, and thus was arriving at his interview on an empty stomach.
The job, he had discovered after further contact with Mr. Burke, involved not only finding the location of rare, unusual, powerful and hopeful antique objects but also in persuading their owners to part from them, for much less than they were actually worth. It was not, Tom had soon discovered, the most admirable and honest job, but rather a dirty, hands on job where his charming personality would come in handy, Tom knew that he was good and persuading people to do things that they, in most normal situations, would not do, and so, as he continued to think on this most strong trait of his, the butterflies began to disappear.
Perhaps, just perhaps Dumbledore was right, and this job would be a useful thing for him, after all Borgin and Burke's dealt with the darkest, most dangerous, rarest and most powerful artefacts, relics and objects in Europe....
Tom remembered back to the book he had stolen from the restricted section, and the rare magic that had consumed his imagination, one piece of magic in particular came to mind as he thought on the matter of artefacts, and that was horcrux. Objects in which a person placed part of their soul, as a safety measure should they die... Perhaps he would meet people who had their own horcruxes whilst he was working for Borgin and Burke's, perhaps he would discover horcruxes of famous witches and wizards and just perhaps, someone would teach him how to make a horcrux perfectly. Tom smiled a large beaming smile and quickened his pace towards Borgin and Burke's eager to begin the job that Dumbledore had assured him he would get.
Borgin and Burkes was a large shop, with a fireplace over near the back. It was also a very neat and organised shop, much to Tom's surprise. He was a little early for his interview, and thus decided that wandering around the different rooms and examining the different objects in order to have at least some knowledge on what he would be required to retrieve for the store. As he walked around he examined numerous shelves of objects he did not even know existed. Finally he found himself in the very back room, each room was organised according to price and this room held the darkest, most powerful, dangerous and ancient of all the objects in Borgin and Burke's. Tom found himself reading about objects that not even his wildest imagination could dream up, well not until it was unleashed in any case.
One such example was a book; it was large and heavy with thick black binding and yellowing pages. It was alike to most other older books, except that this book was chained shut with large, magical chains and a big heavy padlock. Tom looked at it curiously, wandering why such a book would be chained up; he picked up the information card and read it,
This book is an ancient runic translation of the darkest spells known to the woad mages that once lived in the marshes near Avalon. Only someone who has drunk the water of innermost fountain in the hidden faerie city of Avalon may read these pages and not suffer a most terrible and painful death. Avalon has long been lost to the Wizarding world after the Arthur Merlin incident, and thus this book has been out of use since those days, clues, however; as to the location of Avalon can be found in the next book along, Arthur's diary. Together, they may help to unleash the most powerful, old, and arcane magic in the world, the old kingdom magic that is the life of the very life force and being of this earth that we live on.
SET- 500 000 Galleons
Tom stepped back in amazement, 500 000 Galleons for such a pair of books, one could buy a mansion in the richest street of Merlin's Lane for that money, and have some to spare. Could anyone ever hope that two books could lead them to having such power that they would pay such a large amount for such an unsure product? A door creaked and Tom drew himself away from a pack of 'Killing snap' cards worth a mere 15 000 galleons and wandered back through the rooms to the front room where there were such things as the Hand of Glory, and a mirror that would trap you inside if you looked at it for too long. Behind the counter stood a short, stocky man with greasy hair that fell over his watery blue eyes. He wore an old fashioned, but well kept brown suit and vest combination complete with a magenta cravat.
"Mr Burke?" Tom asked smoothly with a large smile, as he strode forward confidently and shook the man's hand eagerly.
"Ahh, you must be Mr. Riddle! Please come out the back and let us get this all started." Tom was shocked but not completely surprised to hear that Mr. Burke had a strong Southern Irish accent. Mr Burke smiled and with one hand placed on Tom's shoulder, led the young Riddle boy through a maze of hidden doors into a long thin office on the third floor of the building. As they passed a tall, thin, greasy man with a hook nose and dark tanned skin Mr. Burke merely stated, "My associate Mr. Borgin, he takes care of the customers and I take care of the finances!" Mr. Borgin snarled and muttered something foul as he slunk back to the front room.
The room only had one window, but it was a magnificent window that took up the entire wall behind Mr. Burke's desk. The two side walls of the office were made completely of bookshelves, right to the roof and crammed full of different scrolls, books, parchments, maps and other such objects. Mr Burke's desk was a large, thickly built oak desk, with intricate beautiful carvings, and a very neat and organised top. The room was warm despite the snow outside, due to the large marble fireplace that took up half of the far wall. In front of the fire, on a large red rug stood three arm chairs around a coffee table that matched Mr. Burke's desk and hung above the fireplace was an oil portrait of Mr. Burke and a young blonde girl.
Tom examined this painting closely, Mr. Burke stood his hand resting on the thin shoulder of a girl aged around 11, with two long plaited pigtails of light blonde, a delicate northern European face, and a pair of dark blue/grey eyes that sparkled ever so slightly with mischievousness. The young girl, Tom noted as she rubbed her slightly ski-jump nose with the back of her hand, was wearing Slytherin robes.
"You're daughter Mr. Burke?" Tom asked with polite interest, for it was an easy fact to know that all parents adored their children, and indeed, as Tom examined the other paintings and the few scratchy sepia photos' Mr Burke was no different. There were numerous images of the young blonde girl, in Slytherin Quidditch Robes holding a Quaffle beaming proudly, one of the girl now with short fashionable blonde hair and a straight fringe stroking the neck of a racing Hippogriff in a 1st place photo and one of her holding an All-rounder Merit Trophy, that commended her for her gaining mostly Outstanding and a few excellent in her OWL's, combined with Quidditch team, duelling club, and hippogriff breeding extracurricular activities in her 5th year.
"Yes, that is my Maria. Such a beautiful girl, she's in sixth year now that is her holding her Quidditch Captain's badge and her prefect badge, she's a talented young witch... But we are not here to talk about her, please Mr. Riddle, take a seat and let us get down to business." At the mention of business Mr Burke rubbed his hands together greedily and grinned at Tom, showing off his several golden teeth.
"As you obviously know, I am retiring from my position as retriever of objects for the store and taking a more, managerial role purely providing finances and so forth, and I require someone to take my place. The job entails searching through documents such as personal letters, wills, insurance policies and so forth, to discover who has something that is of interest to us, we then approach the person, charm them without magic, and convince them to sell us the object for a fraction of the actual worth. Dumbledore does not know the full details of my business rather he scolds me for overcharging here in the shop when he browses by occasionally." Mr. Burke paused and chuckled as he realised that he had gotten off course, "But none-the-less, this job is an important one, there are many dark objects out there that their owners do not understand the value of, and are merely left at the back of a room or used as a doorstop, all we are doing is preserving history by purchasing such items and selling them to those who will truly appreciate their rarity. The fact that we are able to do so by tricking people into selling items to us for a fraction of the real worth is just a homage to our dark ancestor roots, you do not become rich and successful by being kind Tom. Does the thought of doing this work which is less than moral bother you?" Mr. Burke asked, Tom shook his head and leant forward, he was worried that this was a trap, but he wanted to be honest,
"To be totally honest with you Mr. Burke, the idea of working for you dealing with such dark objects is very exciting. Whether the manner in which the objects are obtained is moral or ethical does not bother me in the slightest, though the darker side is much more interesting and exciting." Tom leant back and watched Mr. Burke, trying to read his expression, but Mr. Burke, it turned out, was even better at hiding his thoughts than Tom.
"This desk is a rather special object itself, it is a lie detector you see, if the person lie's it tells me, and only I can see what it says..." Mr. Burke paused and looked at Tom, who sat quietly awaiting Mr. Burke to tell him that he had the job, for what he had said had been no lie. Mr. Burke's stern face changed to a beaming smile as he held out his hand, "Congratulations Tom, now today you will follow me around just to show you the ropes but as of tomorrow, you my boy, are on your own!" Mr. Burke laughed a booming laugh and grabbed his coat and wand, and smiled at Tom, "come come, you and I are apparating to number 12 Grimmauld Place, the Black's have something I'm rather keen to lay my hands on."
