A/N: 12th Chapter. Yay. :)
Eeep! Don't kill me! Seriously, I thought I posted this already. Sooo sorry!
Hmm...what to say. Not much Dramione in this, just be warned. Next chapter, hopefully. Which will be following this very shortly...
Slight mention of someone stumbling upon a Twilight book in the library. There's also a small Star Warts: Knights of the Old Republic II reference in this chapter.
Read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, Twilight is by Stephanie Meyer, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is by Bioware and Lucas Arts (I think?), the song "The Sound of Silence" is by Simon and Garfunkel. All I own is the (ADDED) plot and the Ocs.
The Sound of Silence
...***...
Chapter 12
"And the people bowed and prayed,
To the neon god they made,
And the sign flashed out its warning,
And the sign said,
'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls',
And whispered in the sounds of silence..."
-The Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel
The two walked down the corridors in search of their Headmaster. They got to his study quickly, but realized that they weren't the only ones going in.
Or out.
Harry pulled Hermione behind a suit of armour just as Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape and Professor Morrigan came out of Professor Dumbledore's office. The two realized they were unable to get out of their hiding spot without being seen. Another obstacle was the fact that just as the three Professors left the office, they continued to stand just outside of the door – or gargoyle. It seemed all they could do was eavesdrop again.
"The Dark Lord is getting stronger, Morrigan," said Snape, looking pointedly in the other man's direction. There was a certain edge with his voice that Harry, nor Hermione couldn't figure out as he spoke Morrigan's name. "Do you truly think he cares if he loses any of his followers?"
"Depends if I'm there or not," replied Morrigan, glaring at the Potion's Master. "I worked hard to get his attention and trust, what did you do?"
Snape was about to bite back when Dumbledore spoke. "Enough! This is not the time, nor place to be speaking of these things."
There was a pause. Finally, Morrigan spoke. "Albus is right. We'll continue this discussion at a later time." Before either of the two Professors could talk, Morrigan left with a swish of his cloak, not looking back to see if they said anything. He was coming toward where Harry and Hermione's hiding spot was, but if he noticed them, he paid no mind as he passed.
Snape turned to Dumbledore. "Can he be trusted?"
"As if you can," whispered Harry, hotly. Hermione made a gesture telling Harry to shut up.
"Of course. And if not, Voldemort would be a fool to rest his own faith in him."
"Then we are fools," replied Snape. Dumbledore continued to look impassive.
"Perhaps we are, Severus. Perhaps we are."
Snape didn't look satisfied with Dumbledore's answer. Even so, he turned on his heel and walked the opposite way that Morrigan did. Dumbledore watched Snape, but what he said nearly made the two secret listeners' jump. "Harry, Hermione, the coast is clear. You may come out."
Though, that may have been part of the intention.
How did he...? "It's Dumbledore, of course," whispered Harry. He lead the way, standing from his crouched and extremely uncomfortable seat behind the armour. Hermione followed suit, not feeling any better than he was. They slowly walked over to the Headmaster.
"Good evening," he greeted, as if the conversation hadn't happened. There was a twinkle in his eye, however, that looked at them knowingly. "I suspect the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts went well?"
"Oh, yes, splendid," replied Harry, hurriedly. He pulled out the flask from his pocket. "I – we – found this." Dumbledore took the flask and began to examine it. Harry continued. "It's supposedly Fox Black's memory. Revised."
Dumbledore's eyes moved back to Harry and Hermione. They shifted from both students, then he went to the gargoyle statue in front of his study. He beckoned the two to follow, and they didn't hesitate to oblige.
They stepped into the room and walked straight over to the Pensieve. Once the Headmaster poured the contents into the silver disk, all three plunged their heads in, and they were immediately immersed in the memory.
Harry was in Diagon Alley again. He saw the Malfoy family, with Fox. All seemed the same. Each movement, any touch, every word...until Fox ran into the girl.
She wasn't the same. This time...Aura was it? Yes, Aura had much darker hair than Harry remembered. It was nearly black, but he could see that it was actually just a really dark brown. It was also shorter and thinner, curling up slightly. Her eyes were grey. And unlike before – where they were blue and innocent – no, she didn't look quite innocent at all.
The words were the same, as well as the voices...until...
"Keep it," she said, waving off Fox's attempt to give it to her. He frowned darkly.
"Why should I keep your notebook?"
Aura rolled her eyes. "Touch it with your wand."
"What?"
"Your. Wand." She sounded demanding now. It was scary that someone so innocent before could sound like this. Fox didn't pause at all when he took out his wand and tapped the front of the leather notebook. It glowed six colours – blue, red, green, orange, purple and yellow – before molding into a leather phoenix.
Fox abruptly shut his eyes tightly, as if he were in great pain for a second. But as quick as he did, he opened them and looked unfazed. Sort of.
"How could a Muggle such as yourself be in possession of something like this?" He sort of...spat, the word "Muggle" out at her. It didn't quite bother her much.
Hold up...she was a Muggle? How...odd.
"I have my ways...I never caught your name."
"Fo— no. What's yours?"
"Aura Seymour."
"You're good at lying. I like it," he said, a little seductively. Despite that, there was slight malice in his voice. "My name is Fox Black."
"You also lie," pointed out Aura.
"Hah," replied Fox, no humour whatsoever. He also looked...surprised. As if he weren't quite used to people knowing who he was. A Muggle, figuring it out too couldn't mean anything good. "No one is normally so quick at reading me. But if I told you my real name, you'd run off. Any Muggle that hangs out in Diagon Alley would."
"I bet not."
Fox smirked. "Tell me yours, and I'll tell you mine."
Aura seemed to ponder for a moment. Finally, "Whatever floats your boat. My name is Zara Gardner. Now tell me yours."
Fox's smirk turned into a shark-like grin. It was cold, and somehow mixed with...a snake?
But before said anything, the scene changed.
The scene changed to, what seemed like, Third or Fourth Year class. They were in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Quirrel was teaching.
"Any q-q-q-questions, c-c-class?" Always stuttering, thought Harry.
Fox, who was sitting around the middle, off to the right of the classroom, slammed his fist on his desk and raised his hand. Quirrel pointed at him.
"Y-y-yes, M-Mr. Black."
"Sir, is it true that vampires sparkle?" Quirrel's face seemed to turn bright red. There were snickers and chuckles in the class. Fox continued. "I err...came across it while reading. And I didn't fully understand it."
Harry blinked. The way he said it...was familiar.
"D-d-detention, M-Mr. Black," said Quirrel, very nearly missing his cue to stutter. Harry remembered who he really was. And that real him didn't stutter.
The scene changed again, this time in Malfoy Manor.
"Why do you keep talking about her, Draco? It's not like you have any interest in her," said Fox, sounding rather irritated. His nose was scrunched up in what seemed like disgust and he was sitting in a rather fancy room, on an extremely large and fancy cushion chair. Across from him on a, not-nearly-as-fancy-couch was Draco Malfoy. The blond seemed to be eleven or twelve, while Fox was about thirteen or fourteen.
"Of course I don't 'have an interest in her'," spat Malfoy, toying with his wand but not making eye contact with Fox. "Why would I? It's her fault I got in trouble with Mother and Father today."
"About your grades?" snickered Fox, a smirk to rival any Malfoy's coming across his face. "I'm surprised you left that conversation unscathed. If Uncle Lucius knew what she was, you would get in much bigger trouble than that."
Malfoy gave a look of confusion. "Father wouldn't beat me."
Fox snorted. "No. But he's strict, I'll tell you that. I read people, Draco, you should start doing the same." He paused and looked around. "My father would probably kill me though, if he found out I had lower grades than someone like her."
"What? What is she?"
Fox leaned in as if he were telling someone the juiciest secret in the world. "She's a Mudblood!" he whispered.
Malfoy seemed pretty surprised. He whispered, "She's a...a Mudblood?"
"Yeah. Didn't I just say that?" Fox's smirk suddenly turned to a scowl. Harry could tell he didn't like repeating himself.
Malfoy looked thoughtful. Then a sneer went across his features. "Aren't you Halfblood? Don't you not care?"
Fox sneered. "I'm not supposed to care. But I know my mother does. I never met her, but I know she's in Azkaban right now. And my father? He's dead. He was a Halfblood."
The scene changed, showing Fox – a much older Fox, probably now in his Fifth or Sixth Year – sitting in one of the Hogwarts corridors. He was leaning on the wall, elbows resting on his knees and looking extremely troubled. His gaze wasn't focused on anything, in fact, he seemed to have a faraway look in his eyes.
"Twenty points from Ravenclaw for being out after hours," drawled a voice down the hall. Fox jumped, seeming to have broken his reverie.
The boy stood up, attempting to compose himself, brushing off dust from his robes. He seemed genuinely surprised. "P-Professor Snape," he stuttered, not from fear it seemed, but more like the unanticipated encounter.
Snape raised his eyebrows. "Do enlighten me, why would someone, such as yourself, try and look everywhere possible to lose points for his house?" Fox opened his mouth, probably attempting to make a coherent rebuttal, but Snape got their first. "And do enlighten me further, Mr. Black, why is it whenever I find you, you are always playing a game of chess—"
"I'm not—"
"—in your head?"
Fox, while having a frown on his face only a moment before, sneered, "So nosey people don't know what I'm thinking about. I have to say, Professor, the description of 'nosey' describes you quite well in more ways than one."
"Why you insolent little—"
"Severus," spoke a voice behind Fox, surprising them both.
"Headmaster," nodded Snape. Fox quickly turned around to address him in the same manner.
"It's very late, Fox," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Perhaps it would be a good time to be off to bed."
Fox narrowed his eyes slightly and regarded the Headmaster with great caution. Finally, he nodded his head and walked off.
The scene changed again and they were back in Diagon Alley.
"...Now tell me yours."
Fox had his shark/snake-like grin on, and Harry felt his breathing get caught in his throat with the next thing he heard Fox say.
"Riddle. My name is Morlus Riddle."
The three of them – Harry, Hermione and Dumbledore – all came out of the memory at the same time. Their expressions were the same. Fox Black's true name was Morlus Riddle. Riddle.
"Sir?" asked Hermione after a while. "Did you...did you know...?"
"No, Ms. Granger," replied Dumbledore, shaking his head. He seemed as shocked as he was when he found out that Voldemort had been creating Horcruxes. "I never knew he had a son."
"A son?" questioned Harry. "How is that possible? They could just be, I dunno...sharing a last name?"
"Perhaps. But it is far too coincidental for this boy to have been with the Malfoy family, while sharing the same name as Voldemort. It may seem he wished to have an heir. But with the Horcruxes he created, I doubt that was his main intention."
"But I mean...wouldn't you have known, Professor? That 'Fox' was 'Morlus'?"
"No. An inkling of an idea, yes, but I remember an unusual amount of magical power residing in Fox. There were many deep secrets he hid, not even I could understand him fully."
There was another pause. Then Dumbledore continued. "I will speak to the others about this. Well done in finding it, you two. Well done."
Just as the two were about to leave, Harry turned and decided to ask Dumbledore his question. "Is Voldemort really getting stronger?"
Dumbledore didn't say anything at first. Then, "As much as magically possible."
Harry and Hermione left after that. When they stood outside, they took a moment to think about what they heard.
"Why wouldn't Dumbledore have known who Fox really was? This is troubling..." mumbled Harry.
"Harry," Hermione began, gulping. H turned to her. "Do you think he maybe...since he was creating Horcruxes, while having no plan of dying..."
"Go on."
"Maybe. Maybe he wanted someone as his right hand man. Someone he could trust fully."
Harry thought for a moment. Eyes widening, he spoke. "He didn't...Lucius Malfoy was his right hand man before. But if he needed someone else...a blood relative, then...then does that mean...?"
Hermione nodded and finished what he was going to say.
"Voldemort was planning for his son to replace Lucius Malfoy. The fact he had a reason to demote him was an added bonus."
A/N: Hah. So, as you've guessed, Fox (or Morlus now,) stumbled upon Twilight while reading. Whether it was in the Restricted Section or not, is up to you.
Hope I got the gargoyle thing right. And Dumbledore. Yes, I know he would've been able to read Fox. BUT there is a reason he couldn't...
Cookie to you if you can find the slight Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords reference in this one! ;P
Don't kill me for lack of Dramione in this chapter! More Draco/Hermione moments in the next few chapters (I think...I'm pretty sure.)
The 13th Chapter is called "The Catalyst" (by Linkin Park) and the song quote is:
"God save us everyone,
Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns?
For the sins of our hands,
The sins of our tongues,
The sins of our fathers,
The sins of our young,
No..."