Chapter Seven: Mysteries and Deceit
Raiden woke the next day feeling out of sorts and grumpy. He didn't like feeling unsure of himself and what he'd witnessed the previous night had shaken him badly. After a hasty breakfast he went in search of his mentor.
He found Professor Quirrell in his office. The man looked up as Raiden entered and swiftly cast the now standard locking and privacy charms that they used when they talked. Voldemort then took over his host's body and stared at his apprentice with some concern.
"What's wrong Raiden?" he queried.
Raiden looked at his master and then back at the floor from where he sat in his chair. Finally he looked back up at Voldemort and said, "Last night, when Professor Snape killed the troll, he used the Avada Kedavra curse twice to knock it out and then sliced it's throat with a cutting curse. Seeing the killing curse up close made me feel, I don't know, upset and worried. I shouldn't be like that though, how am I going to be a Dark Lord and stand by your side if I can't handle seeing it. How am I supposed to use it if I can't deal with seeing a troll be killed with it?"
Voldemort sat back in his chair and frowned. He hadn't considered this aspect of it, and was annoyed with himself for not doing so. He was also highly annoyed at Snape for doing it in front of the children; they shouldn't have had to see it. Finally he sat forward again and said, "Raiden, Professor Snape did the only thing he thought he could do in that situation. He was intent on saving your life and that of your companions. You're only eleven years old, it's expected that you have this sort of reaction to seeing a curse you've had bad experience with before. You'll grow out of it, I promise. Not all my followers use the Unforgivables, for example Professor Snape joined me because I allowed him to research certain potions that the Ministry have banned because they don't understand them. You are allowed to specialize you know. You would be my second in command, and eventually, my equal, and as such you wouldn't have to torture or kill people very often, it's mostly paperwork at our level you know. You'd only have to use the Unforgivables if you needed to bring someone back in line, and that would happen rarely."
Raiden looked somewhat happier at this. "I will need to learn them though won't I," he stated. Voldemort nodded, seeing no way of getting round that particular fact. Raiden sighed, and then shrugged. "OK Master. I'll just work on making myself less sensitive to that curse."
"You don't need to do that yet though. You won't be learning to cast them until your sixth or seventh year in fact, when your magic has matured and stabilized a bit more. You'll be learning them in the summers of those years of course as they won't teach them here. Just work on the spells you know, not all the curses you learn here are strictly for everyday things, the cutting curse for instance is quite deadly if used on someone's neck but they teach it anyway. Work on the things you're taught in class and don't worry about anything else for now. I want you to get the best education you can here, I can't teach you everything remember."
Raiden nodded, feeling more reassured now and stood, stretching for a moment. "Thanks Master, I feel better now. May I go; I have a small mystery that needs solving."
Voldemort nodded and watched his apprentice leave, before releasing control back to Quirrell. The DADA professor shivered once before returning to grading papers.
Raiden in the meantime had sought out Daphne and shown her the scrap of parchment where he'd written the odd phrase that was on the strange mirror. Daphne took a look at it, frowned, and then smirked before turning to him.
"Harry, you don't mean to say that you didn't see that it was written backwards?" she questioned.
Raiden blinked and then took a closer look at the writing before smacking himself in the head. "Of course, written backwards, I'm an idiot. Thanks Daph," he said, not realizing in his concentration that he'd shortened his friend's name. When he did he looked up hastily.
"Sorry, Daphne I wasn't thinking" he apologised.
Daphne had a strange look on her face. "No problem, Harry" she replied, wondering why she was allowing him to shorten her name when she usually allowed no one to do so. She couldn't explain it except that she felt comfortable around her fellow first year, comfortable in a way that she wasn't with the others. Harry just radiated a confidence and sense of security, even at the young age of eleven which appealed to her. He usually kept it controlled round the other students but with her and Draco he seemed to fully relax. Around anyone else, even Professor Snape, he was guarded and wary, but he seemed to be loosening up with regards to Snape.
Raiden was walking up to the Great Hall when he heard an argument up ahead. Walking closer, he automatically silenced his footsteps and regulated his breathing to move closer unseen so he could eavesdrop successfully.
"..Snape has to be the one," Ron Weasley was saying. He was with a group of Gryffindor first year boys who were all nodding agreement. Raiden frowned, Snape was the one what? Before he could hear more the Gryffindors moved away. Raiden was in a thoughtful mood as he walked towards the Slytherin table for lunch. As he watched Snape walking up to the head table he frowned again, was the man limping? That was out of character for their head of house for certain. Now the question was, why would he be limping?
After lunch he walked to the Potions classroom, hoping that Snape was in his office. Luck was with him, as his professor was indeed there, grading papers. The man looked up to see his most problematic student standing there and sighed.
"Mr Potter I assume you need to talk to me?" he asked.
Raiden nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. "Professor, I know it's none of my business, but, are you alright? I noticed you were limping at lunch and I wondered what was wrong."
Snape closed the door to his office and warded it securely. Looking at Raiden intently he said, "Thank you for your concern, Mr Potter, but I am fine. If you want to know, Quirrell went up to the third floor and I went to head him off. In the process I was bitten by that blasted three-headed dog."
Raiden frowned. "Why did you head him off Professor?" he enquired, wondering if his master's intuition regarding Snape was off.
Snape seemed to sense this because he frowned as well and replied, "Because I learnt something that Quirrell doesn't know. Quirrell will try to get the Stone but will fail. He only wants it for himself and that is not the way to get it successfully. I don't know what the correct way to get it is but that is why I stopped him."
"Do you want me to pass on the message?" Raiden asked.
Snape shook his head. "No, Potter, if our master hasn't retaliated in some way then he must be content to wait. Just continue as normal and don't give any indication that you know of this."
"Ok Sir. By the way, I think you should know that I overheard a conversation between a group of Gryffindor first years that included Weasley, talking about you and how you must be "the one", whatever that meant."
Snape smirked. "They might have seen me going to head Quirrell off and assumed that I am after the Stone. Just leave them be, ignore them. They have no idea of the truth and we will leave it that way understood?"
"Understood sir," Raiden replied before standing to leave.
Snape looked at him for a moment before saying, "Don't let this go to your head, Potter but you earned full marks on that Potions test last week. Well done."
Raiden bowed his head in thanks and left for a long day of lazing around with his friends and musing on what to do with Quirrell once he had the Stone and could assist his master with returning to a body.
A couple of months later it was coming up to Christmas and the sign up sheet went round so those who wanted to stay could indicate their interest in doing so. Raiden was in two minds about this, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had extended an invitation for him to spend Christmas with them and Draco but he also wanted to remain to keep an ear out for any happenings with Weasley and crew about the Stone. Finally he decided to leave with Draco as he would be returning in a week or two anyway and not a lot can happen in a week.
Raiden got several gifts over Christmas, including a lovely set of robes from Narcissa Malfoy and a set of journals from Lucius which would be useful if he needed to write down his thoughts and keep them private. They could be spelled so only Raiden could write in them and see the previous entries. Draco gave him a clasp for his robe, a silver snake with green emerald eyes.
Raiden himself had given gifts to all his friends, before he left for the holiday. Draco of course had brought his with him and smiled when he opened it. It was a new wizard chess set to replace the one that had finally given up on Draco a few days before term ended. Raiden had had a terrible time trying to figure out what to give Lucius and Narcissa so Draco helped him out, and they got a joint present for each of them which consisted of several rare wizarding texts that Lucius had been trying to get his hands on for ages, and subscriptions to all of Narcissa's favorite magazines for one year. The looks on the faces of the elder Malfoys was well worth the expense of the gifts Raiden thought with satisfaction.
When they were back at school, Raiden had gone for a night time wander when he heard scuffling noises nearby. He frowned, checked to see if he was still invisible and silenced and the moved closer. Seeing no one ahead but hearing heavy breathing he pressed himself against the wall and thought for a few minutes.
'Must be someone under an invisibility cloak' he thought. Silently he followed the noises, up to the Astronomy tower where the invisible person revealed themselves as Ron, Fred, and George Weasley and they had a baby dragon with them!
Raiden waited in the shadows until the three other students had completed their business and gone, and by a stroke of good fortune they left the invisibility cloak on the top of the tower. Checking to see there was no one around he picked up the cloak and read the name tag on the inside.
"James Potter," he muttered. "This was my father's cloak what the hell were those Weasels doing with it. Dumbledore must have had it in his possession and given it to them, when he should have given it to me! Oh well, it's mine now and I'm not telling anyone that I have it."
Still invisible and silenced, although he wrapped himself in the cloak both for extra security and also as a way of feeling closer to his father, he made his way back to Slytherin, hearing the dismayed voices of the Gryffindors, as well as the stern voice of Professor McGonagall berating them for being out of bed several corridors down from where he was. Taking a short cut he went round them and reached the safety of his bed soon after. Packing the cloak in the bottom of his trunk he got into bed and slipped off to sleep.
There was an uproar the next morning when the Gryffindors found out that they were down 300 points and as such were close to being in the negatives. McGonagall had taken 50 points from Ron and 125 each from Fred and George as they were older and should have known better. The Slytherins were delighted, it meant that Gryffindor would be out of the running for the House Cup for sure and they made sure to rub the Gryffindors' noses in it as often as they could. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw stayed out of it though Raiden spotted Hermione looking scandalized that anyone would break the rules in such a manner. He grinned when she looked at him and she merely sniffed and turned away again.
With Gryffindor morale at an all time low the Slytherins took the lead in the both the House and Quidditch Cup races. In the midst of all this Raiden went looking for more information on the Philosopher's Stone and it was in doing this research that he stumbled upon a very valuable piece of information. It came from none other than the Headmaster himself.
Raiden was wandering round the library one day when he spotted Dumbledore by one of the shelves. Drifting over he examined the books and acted surprised when Dumbledore called his name.
"Harry, what are you doing in here, it's a lovely day to be outside," Dumbledore said kindly.
Raiden looked at the books again before replying, "Hermione mentioned something about a Philosopher's Stone and I was interested in learning more about it sir."
Dumbledore positively beamed at him, which made Raiden feel a bit sick. "Of course, Harry, of course. Have you found out anything about it?"
"Well, the only known Stone belongs to Nicholas Flamel and he's supposedly over 600 years old now. It can turn any metal into gold and produces the elixir of life," he said, seeing no harm in repeating public information.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes well done, Harry, but why did you want to know about it?"
Here was the tricky part, how did Raiden tell Dumbledore that he knew what was being kept secret in the school without giving away his own secret. He finally decided on a mixture of truth and fiction.
"Well, you said that the third floor corridor was out of bounds sir, and Hagrid mentioned to my friend, Hermione, that he picked something up for you at Gringott's Bank before term started. There's something behind the door on the third floor corridor, some sort of animal that sounds like a huge dog from the growling noises. It has to be a guard of some kind. With the stone being able to grant immortality I can only think that you moved the stone to Hogwarts to keep it safe from Voldemort."
He prayed that Dumbledore accepted the story. Hermione had mentioned her conversation with Hagrid, so it was semi truthful. Dumbledore looked at him piercingly for a moment but his shields held and the old wizard didn't find anything out that Raiden didn't want him to. Finally Dumbledore nodded and said, "You're quite resourceful, Harry, and with a keen mind. Tell this to no one else, alright. I'll let you in on a little secret, what is being guarded is not the real Stone."
At Raiden's frown of puzzlement, Dumbledore put up a second strong privacy shield to stop eavesdroppers, even though they couldn't have heard anything through the first one anyway.
"It is a Philosopher's Stone dear boy but it is a flawed one, an experimental one if you will, that Nicholas made before he discovered the true one. The true Stone is safe under a Fidelius charm so no one but Nicholas knows the secret of where it is."
Raiden's mind was racing, if that Stone down below was flawed then what would happen if his master tried to use it? Hesitantly he voiced the question. "Sir, if Voldemort does get his hands on the Stone and uses it what would happen. Would he come back to life?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No, Harry, he would be utterly destroyed, the Stone would destroy his soul and kill him for good."
"Oh, so we're safe then?" Raiden asked.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes Harry quite safe. You have nothing to worry about. Run along now and study, you have exams coming up if I'm not mistaken."
Raiden nodded and left, thinking furiously about how to dissuade his master from going after the Stone. He didn't want to be the cause of his master's final demise after all, but Dumbledore was right, exams were looming and he needed to study for them.
A few weeks later, Raiden and his friends came out of their last exams to find Hermione waiting for them. The other Slytherins had reluctantly accepted Hermione and had mutually agreed to ignore the blood issue as Raiden was her friend and Ravenclaw wasn't a bad house to have friends in. The minute they saw her she started in on the exams only to have Draco hold up a weary hand.
"Hold on, Granger, we've just done the exams, we don't need a post mortem on them please. All that's doing is forcing us to doubt our answers and we need to stay positive, OK."
Hermione huffed but dropped the subject and they walked to the lake grinning when they heard Ron Weasley complaining about the hardness of the exams. The red head was a compulsive non-studier and it was no surprise that he found the exams hard. Hermione and the Slytherins had found them relatively easy, especially Potions and Transfiguration.
Free of classes for the weekend, Raiden practiced his wandless magic and spent the day lazily levitating and summoning objects, making them do cartwheels in the air and all sorts of other things. His friends knew about this ability of his and didn't question it, indeed, they'd been asking Raiden to help them learn it which he'd been happy to do. The result was a small group of Slytherins and one Ravenclaw who could do small spells without their wands, and this was particularly useful for a number of small pranks, such as moving objects out of reach when their owners needed them, or floating them round the room and watching the observers try to figure out how the objects were floating when no one had their wands out. It was entertaining.
A week later, Raiden heard something disturbing when he was eavesdropping on the Gryffindor first year boys which had become a source of entertainment and information for him. Why spy himself when fairly accurate information could be obtained by nosy and loud mouthed, careless Gryffs? No point. The information this time however caused him to go to Professor Snape. It was time to put that information from Dumbledore into play.
But Professor Snape was not in his office, nor his classroom. In desperation, Raiden reached through the fledgling bond that he had with his master and tried to reach him, but Voldemort wasn't listening to him. It was no good; if Raiden wanted to prevent his master's destruction then he would have to go himself.
Quickly putting on his invisibility cloak he slipped out of the dormitory, telling Draco that he had an urgent errand to run. He said if he wasn't back in half an hour for Draco to send Professor Snape up to the third floor corridor. Then he ran for it before his friends could stop him from going which was what they wanted to do.
Once he got to the third floor corridor Raiden slowed down and calmed himself. It was time to get the false Stone and prevent his master from destroying himself in the quest for immortality.