AUGUST TWENTY-SECOND, NINETEEN NINETY-FOUR
On my next visit, I walked into Cassius' rooms to find him perched forward in his seat, staring hungrily at that thing called the "TV". On it, the Quidditch World Cup was just finishing. He beckoned to me to sit next to him, his eyes not tearing away from the TV. When I sat, a single finger came up, I suppose telling me to be quiet. I really had never had an interest in Quidditch, so I simply watched, really having no idea what was going on. Apparently the game was almost over anyway, as five minutes later a whole bunch of people jumped up and cheered in the stands, and Cassius leaned back with an odd frown on his face. I wanted to ask why he was frowning, but I thought that maybe his favorite team hadn't won. Not really important. Most Quidditch freaks screamed up something evil when their favorite team didn't win. I supposed I should have found myself lucky that Cassius was not one of these men. After a moment he turned to me, a big bowl of popcorn suddenly in his hands.
"Snack?" he said simply. The nurse who had brought my down the stairs was different from the last. She said they had given him a drug which made him, well calmer and generally happier. They called it an "up" drug. She had also apologized to me for his reaction last time. "Sometimes his mind reminds him of moments in history when his arm would go off, and he would see something the dark lord had done." She had said. "They apparently made his mark different than the others, so Cassius could always share in the Dark Lord's triumphs. Sickening isn't it?" I had simply nodded sadly as an answer. Anyway, Cassius was apparently going to be happy and perky for my entire visit, unless something manages to really upset him. They said I should get a good story out of him today. And apparently popcorn. "Yes please." I said with a small smile, taking a handful and slowly eating through it. "Good. I like popcorn. All people who like popcorn can be trusted by me." This new Cassius was slightly bothering. Too happy. I wanted the old one back, even if he did break down and yell at me at some point.
"Cassius?" He looked at me quickly, eyebrows raised innocently as if to say "Hm? Yes? What is it?" I chose my words carefully. "Did you see… Tom killing a woman last time?" He frowned at me a little, and then recognition dawned on his face, and his perky energy seemed to slowly wane away. "Yes. I did. Did you find her? In the news?" I shrugged. "Sort of. I heard whispers of a woman being killed, and them suspecting a house-elf or something." He nodded and frowned. "That's usually how it is, framing people." I stared at him funny, not understanding. I had never known the Dark Lord to let anyone else take the pride of what he had done. "I'm getting ahead of myself," Cassius said. "Where's that weird quill and parchment of yours?" I took them out, and poised the quill on top of the parchment, as I had before. He stared at it for a moment, deemed it an oddity, and then looked to be thinking. "Eat that popcorn. It's apparently a never ending bowl. I want to see if that's true." I ate, and he thought. It seemed once you got to know this man you would pretty much do anything to keep him in a happy state. It took a week for the bruises on my neck to go away from last time. My boyfriend had not been impressed.
Cassius thought for a while, and I loudly munched on popcorn, causing my quill to write "munch, munch, munch" over and over on the page. Finally he got up and started to pace. "I told you Tom lived most of his childhood in an orphanage, yes?" I nodded, mouth full of popcorn. This bowl was indeed never-ending. "Well, just before the school year started in the year oh – 1938, Albus Dumbledore went to go and offer Tom a place at Hogwarts. Of course, to any orphan, the idea of being removed from such a horrid place to go and learn magic was a gift really. Tom took it up immediately, and this is where I came to meet him, on the Train to Hogwarts. He was really curious about everything. But the nice thing about it is when I explained something to him once, he remembered it, and vice versa. We work well that way; however, a slight difference is I have a slightly eidetic memory. He does not, but his memory is still very good. It was on that train that the first moments of what would be a very long leeching to come."
I found a moment to interrupt. "Leech?" "Yes." He said simply. "We were friends of a sort, but it was more friends out of admirable necessity. I've always been a sort of follower, I prefer to be given orders, not have to make them, and I looked up to Tom as if he were a god. I leeched off his power. Tom is the opposite. He is a born leader, and loves attention. He loved the fact I would always give him all the attention he could ever need. That make sense?" I nodded. "OK. May I go on?" I thought for a moment, "Did you like it?" "He was my life," Cassius gave a big sigh, "And he was my undoing. After his death, I went mad. And I'm still mad, as you well know." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I couldn't live without him, I went mad trying to. I could always see him, and hear his voice. My wife… god. I can't imagine what I did to her in that time. But she's the reason I'm here. And she was the one I should have put attention on. Perhaps… had I actually showed her that I did love her, allowed her to come into my life, perhaps I wouldn't have gone mad. Tom and Octavia hated each other, you know. I… was a fool." He went and stroked Octavia's face on the photograph. He muttered "too late…" and then stared at the floor. "May I go on, now?"
"Yes."
He started his pacing again. "We were both separated into Slytherin, and immediately, we were the top and the talk of the class. I was part of this teacher named Slughorn's Slug Club. It was for famous people really. You can imagine Tom hated me a bit for that. I never really went to the meetings, just to make him happy. Anyway, in our second year, Tom learned that there was this Chamber somewhere in the castle. They called it the Chamber of Secrets. And god, he looked for it so hard that he actually found it within the first month of being at school. We just couldn't figure out how to open it. It was in one of the girl's bathrooms. Stupid place for it, and don't ask me how he found it. I have no idea. Our next year, two important people come to Hogwarts. The first is Albus Dumbledore – oh don't give me that look girl, he was just simply a representative for the ministry before – to teach Transfiguration. The second was a half giant named Hagrid." I frowned. "You know him, don't you." "Yeah, he's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts." Cassius nodded. "…He's a death eater?"
Cassius let out a bark of laughter. "Merlin no, he's just slightly important in the story. You see, the next year, what would have been mine and Tom's fourth year, Hagrid somehow managed to acquire an Acromantula – oh, an ever growing spider, if you will. They can get to be a couple of stories high. Very dangerous, but they take forever to grow to those heights. Anyway, Hagrid had one, and it only grew to be about the size of his hand before it escaped – which was … mainly my fault. You see, I knew Hagrid had it. Watched him smuggle it in. I was everywhere in those days, very quiet, no one really paid any attention to me unless I wanted them to." He looked off into space for a few moments, as if remembering something. He then looked back at me, and came to sit down with me on the couch, grabbing the popcorn bowl and leaning back, grabbing my arm and pulling me back with him. "This is comfier, and I don't want to stare at the back of your head." Seemed the pills they gave him were still in effect.
"Now, to give you some history that you would know about, that December, on the seventh I'm pretty sure, Pearl Harbor happened. Ah yes, I see that look of recognition on your face, well, they made us all stand in honor of the soldiers and such, and Tom thought it was funny. Not the assembly, but the actual war itself. Served him right to actually think something was that horribly funny, but the bad part was I thought it was funny as well. Gives you an idea of how twisted the guy is. Well, fifth year, Tom was made a prefect. A lot of people liked him, and he was kind of a teacher's pet, so it was expected. I applauded him for that, and would usually go on rounds with him. That year, in about May I think it was, Tom figured out how to open the Chamber." I intervened excitedly "The Chamber of Secrets." "Yes!" Cassius said, exasperated, "Keep your socks on girl. Or take them off actually, I really couldn't care. Just stop jumping to conclusions. Thankfully, I was not with him on this trip. Never really could speak snake. Thank you for just looking at me questioningly. There was a basilisk inside, and Tom, who was a parseltongue – the language of the snake – was the only one who could speak that. As a joke I guess, he taught it to only go after Muggleborns, and for two glorious weeks, Muggles were dropping completely stone-like left right and center. Until Myrtle. Myrtle was technically the first person ever killed." There was a silence.
"Who was he?"
"Oh I don't know. And she. Some girl who was always being made fun of. Never knew her all that well. Anyway, she died in the bathroom where the basilisk comes out. Looked right at its eyes, which is fatal. Tom and I decided that maybe we should close up the Chamber, for another time. However, we needed to blame it on someone. I suggested Hagrid, and his Acromantula. Tom took care of that, and Hagrid was expelled. The big spidey disappeared; I could care less about it. They kept him on as gamekeeper. Dumbledore begged for it, I guess. An act of compassion. And that was what I thought would be the end of all this mess. I was wrong. Tom showed up at my house that summer, holding some ring and full of blood, and bragging about the murder of his treacherous family, and how he was able to frame it on his uncle Morfin. This next bit, I'm not sure I should have said it anymore, but I'm sure it gave him an idea or two. I told him "Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to frame it on anyone? Just have the power to and execute who we like?" And that I believe is one of the key moments in creating the man everyone knows today as 'He Who Shall Not be Named.'" He suddenly itched at his arm in discomfort, where the mark was, and then left it alone. "Does it bother you?" I asked gently. "Sometimes. Not really. Just when he does something." Cassius said absentmindedly, always sure he wasn't dead. Completely insane.
"Can I see it?"
He stared at me curiously for a long moment. It was very difficult to hold that gaze. It was a steady, and almost harsh gaze. Not as if it knew everything about me, but all the things I didn't want him to know. I thought for a moment that he was probably just as experienced at Occlumens and Legilimens as the Dark Lord was. He'd have to be, it would be important. I tried to press simple curiosity in my mind. Of course his eyebrows just raised at me again. Finally he sighed, and started to undo the buttons of his shirt. Apparently it was too high to just roll one's sleeve up. "Why did you guys put it on the upper arm instead of the lower." Cassius shrugged. "It was the first one ever made. I wanted it on my upper arm. Just seemed, I don't know, cooler there. And less likely to get caught." He pulled his shirt off, and I made sure every single ounce of my attention was just on the mark on his arm. The tattoo. It looked a little bit different from the ones that I had seen before, and from what I knew of it, other properties then the other ones. Bragging properties. Cassius didn't bother to put his shirt back on when I was done. He just seemed to be comfortable in his own skin, I guess. "Move on?" I suggested. He nodded.
"In our sixth year at Hogwarts, we bugged Slughorn about something called 'Horcruxes'. Tom was more interested in it then I was, or Cygnus Black, who decided to tag along. He was part of general "people we liked" category. Horcruxes are when you break a soul into bits, and put them into objects. One of Tom's dreams was always to live forever. It was difficult, but he actually managed to do it, and somewhere out there there is a diary that holds a chunk of the soul of Tom Riddle. No, don't go looking for it. You are staying out of this mess." He frowned at me and held my gaze until I agreed not to go looking for it. It was odd. He was sort of protecting me in that way. It was also odd that the right hand of Voldemort was telling me not to get in the mess… that was his own. I guess he didn't want to see me in here as a fellow "inmate". "Now," he continued, "This is also the year I learned I was to marry Octavia Burke. It was common then, betrothals. I didn't think much of it." He waved to the mantle. "She was beautiful, from a good pure family, and Tom hated her immediately. All around, a pretty good wife to have." I frowned. "Because Tom hated her?" He nodded. "Yup. I call it jealousy. It was pretty amusing, but he never really did have to worry about it. I wish I had actually made it so he did, but I only realized that about myself a good ten years ago." He shrugged, looked sad for a moment, and then continued. "In our last year, Tom became Head Boy. As a joke, we all – the people we had deemed worthy and myself – called him "Lord Voldemort". It was the name he'd go by when he finally started to wipe away the unworthy. It kind of caught on, as you can tell." He hissed, and rubbed his arm, and then stared out into space. Deep into space.
"What is it?" No answer, just staring out into space. "Cassius?" I looked to his arm, it was glowing. I took a hand out and shook his shoulder. It was very cold. "Cassius?" I was alarmed then, as he wasn't doing anything. Five minutes I shook him, until finally, an ice cold grip grabbed my arm, and Cassius was with me again. "What was that?" I demanded of him. Cassius quickly grabbed the thing that turned on the TV, and flicked it on. There, over the stadium where they were playing Quidditch not a few hours ago, was the Dark Mark in the sky. I squeaked. "Voldemort?" Cassius shook his head. "Crouch." He said simply. "Who?" I asked. "An old follower just trying to scare people. Rowdiness really. It works like a hot damn, but it's not Tom." He shook his head and turned the TV off. "If it were Tom it would have hurt." He still held my hand, and I could feel warmth flowing back into it. We stayed silent for a moment, unmoving.
"You'd best go now." Cassius said, dropping his hand off mine. I nodded, grabbed my things and stood to go. "Thank you," I said as I called the elevator. "No Arianna," He said simply. The elevator arrived and I stepped in. "Thank you." He said as the doors closed. How could such a man be everything you didn't want him to be?