Chapter Twenty Six: Aftermath and the Start of the Holidays
Raiden was a mess. He had been taken up to Dumbledore's office, followed closely by Severus, Lucius and Sirius where he was now being subjected to an interrogation, although a gentle one.
"What happened at the end of the task Harry?" Dumbledore asked, probing Raiden's mind as he did so. He had used Legilemency on Harry a number of times over the years but found no cause for concern. He liked Harry despite the boy being a Slytherin, and wanted to help him.
Raiden took a breath, and began in a shaky voice, the enormity of what had happened catching up with him all at once. Keeping his eyes focused on the floor, he said, "Cedric and I touched the cup at the same time, it was a Portkey, it took us to a graveyard. V, Voldemort was reborn, in a ceremony using his father's bone, flesh of a servant and blood of the enemy, which was me. The Death Eater, I didn't recognize him, cut my arm and used my blood near the end of the ritual. Cedric was tied up, he couldn't move."
When Raiden paused to gather his thoughts Dumbledore gently prodded him by saying, "What next?"
Raiden thought for a few minutes, he had told Dumbledore the ritual that would have been used if he really was Voldemort's enemy. Finally he continued, "Voldemort wanted Cedric and me to duel. He gave me my wand back, and Cedric and I dueled. Then Cedric tried summoning the cup to escape, but Voldemort interfered. He, he killed Cedric."
Shock and sympathy played across Dumbledore's face, the others kept their expressions neutral, they knew that Raiden was most probably stretching and twisting the truth here. Finally Raiden finished with, "When I protested, he Crucioed me. Twice. Then I managed to get over to Cedric and summoned the cup. We landed back at the maze entrance."
Dumbledore nodded. "It's OK, Harry, everything's going to be OK now. Go to the hospital wing and get Madam Pomfrey to give you some anti Cruciatus potion and then get some sleep. It wasn't your fault that this happened."
Raiden nodded, but inwardly he was shaking. He knew that it was his fault, and he hated it. Getting up, he sensed Sirius, Lucius and Severus falling in around him and they led him back to the Slytherin common room. They took over the fourth year boys' dormitory, kicking the Avengers out so they could have a private talk with Raiden.
"OK what really happened, Harry?" Sirius asked.
Raiden sighed. "The ritual I told Dumbledore was wrong of course, but the bit about Cedric and me dueling, was correct. The only part of that that was wrong was the part with me having my wand. I didn't have my wand when Cedric and I dueled. The part about who killed Cedric was wrong too."
"But if Voldemort didn't kill him, who did? It's not as if you did, you're too young and you didn't have your wand," Lucius said reasonably. All three men stiffened in shock when Raiden turned dull eyes towards them.
"Sweet Merlin!" Sirius breathed, as the fact hit him that his godson had somehow managed to kill someone while not having his wand.
Raiden shook his head and said, "I used Avada Kedavra, it hit Cedric, it didn't entirely work, it produced a drowning effect but Voldemort wanted him fully dead. He handed me his wand and told me to finish it, lending me energy to do it."
Not being able to stand it anymore, Raiden broke down, and Sirius was quick to gather him into a hug. The three older wizards stared at each other over top of Raiden's head, each amazed at the power contained within their young companion, and each also wondering how to help him cope with the fact that he'd killed someone. The first time was always the hardest but for Raiden it was doubly so because he truly didn't like killing, despite him being Voldemort's apprentice.
Raiden pulled away from Sirius and whispered, "What am I going to do? I killed him, he didn't have to die, he could have lived. How do I cope with this?"
"I don't know, Harry" Lucius said carefully. "I do know that if you hadn't obeyed our Lord and killed Diggory then either our Lord or the other Death Eater would have done. You would then have been punished for disobedience."
Raiden gave a mirthless chuckle. "I already was, Lucius. I wasn't supposed to use the Unforgivables until I'd undergone my magical maturity in another two years, it was just the first spell that came to mind and it shouldn't have worked. Our Master said to me that since I'd started it I could finish it. He then handed me his wand and told me to kill Cedric."
Sirius pulled Raiden towards him again, wanting to try and comfort him, even though he knew that there wasn't much he could do to help. Severus silently rose and retrieved his Pensieve from his office, before placing it in front of the young wizard.
"Would you mind showing us what happened?" he said quietly.
Raiden looked at the Pensieve and then at his Head of House with a puzzled expression. "OK but I don't know how" he answered.
"Just concentrate on the memory of what happened and I'll draw it out of your mind and put it in the Pensieve. Then we can view it," Severus said after a moment of silence. Raiden nodded and obediently concentrated on the memory, from the time when Cedric summoned the cup in the maze, to when Raiden summoned the cup to get back to Hogwarts. A long silvery strand dropped into the bowl and after telling Raiden to not go anywhere, Severus, Lucius and Sirius entered the Pensieve.
About fifteen minutes later they emerged and stared at Raiden. All were shocked at the display of wandless magic, even though they knew that he was capable of it. They couldn't quite believe the fact that the killing curse had worked, and they were all sympathetic about the punishment that Raiden had received, even though they knew that he probably deserved it. Lucius and Sirius in particular wanted to go and strongly complain about Voldemort Crucioing Raiden but knew that they couldn't. They settled for hugging him tightly instead until Raiden complained about the lack of air.
The memorial service held for Cedric was a somber affair. The Avengers sat together, all wondering about the level of grief that Raiden was displaying. Raiden hadn't told them what had happened yet and wouldn't until the holidays. After the service, Raiden escaped to the dormitory and lay down on his bed, closing his curtains, before falling asleep, his mind overwhelmed by nightmares of what had happened.
A week later it was the end of school and Raiden still looked dreadful. He had barely slept since the end of the Tournament, struggling to reconcile the fact that he'd killed Cedric with his strong aversion to killing without it being necessary. He hadn't tried to talk to Voldemort about it, he was wary of approaching his master until he knew whether Voldemort had calmed down or not. He had come to the conclusion that he needed to talk to Lucius but he couldn't do that until the next day.
The rest of the Avengers were worried about him but he'd told them that he'd explain when he'd sorted the issues out. Settling for that, they'd merely offered as much support as he'd accept, which was quite a lot. Although he was the Dark Apprentice, and had cultivated the image of a cold hearted Slytherin, he was only fourteen and he had very defined views on things like killing another person without good cause. He had never been comfortable with senseless murder and mayhem, nor was he comfortable with the blood purity issue. That was why he'd come up with his idea for a magical world where a wizard or witch's magical strength counted more than how pure their blood was, an idea which Voldemort had adopted once Raiden had explained the benefits of it to him.
Now though, he had to accept the fact that he'd done exactly what other Death Eaters had done in the First War, killed an innocent person on command. This did not sit well with him and nightmares were the result. Shaking his head, Raiden got up and dressed, preparing for the train ride back to King's Cross, thinking that he would have to talk to Voldemort at some point, where he would ask the Dark Lord whether killing him was really necessary, when a memory charm would have done just as well.
"Hey, Harry you ready to go?" Draco asked, popping his head round the door. Raiden looked up and nodded, forcing a smile on his face. This became more genuine as he locked his emotions away behind Occlumency shields for dealing with later. As he and Draco walked up to the Great Hall for the last meal of the year, they chatted about the end of year exams, which Raiden had been exempt from as a Champion, but Draco had had to go through. After listening to his friend moan about Transfiguration for fifteen minutes Raiden rolled his eyes and muttered, "Yes yes Dray, McGonagall's a mean, heartless cat that lives to make terrible exams, I get the point. For Merlin's sake, start talking about an exam you did like. How was Potions?"
Draco lit up and started discussing the Potions exam, while Raiden smothered a smile as they'd reached the Great Hall. Draco thankfully remembered where they were and toned down the enthusiasm a bit, putting on his cool, collected Slytherin mask until they were on the train. Thankful for the break in exam post mortems Raiden ate breakfast mechanically, before heading for the train with the rest of the students.
"So will you tell us now, Harry?" Daphne muttered, flopping down in their compartment on the train. Blaise rolled his eyes, as did Hermione and Draco. Raiden smirked and replied, "No. I have to talk to Lucius and my Master first, and then I promise I'll tell you."
Daphne growled and Blaise interjected with a diplomatic "Can you tell us anything about what it's about though? Not specifics, just generalities?"
Raiden sighed. "Alright. The third task ended with the rebirth of my Master, and things were going well. Then something happened which has forced me to examine my values about things and I'm confused and conflicted. I need to resolve that conflict before I can properly explain this. Please guys, no more questions."
"OK, Harry" they agreed and the topic was dropped. When the train reached King's Cross, they got out and went with their respective parents or guardians. Draco and Harry were staying with Sirius at Grimmauld Place for the first part of the holidays, as agreed upon with Lucius and Narcissa during the term. Apparently the portrait of Sirius' mother, who had been derogatory towards her eldest son ever since he renounced the Dark Side when he was young, had changed her tune when Sirius told her what was going on, after spelling her to secrecy of course. He had also told the Dark Lord that Dumbledore was reactivating the Order of the Phoenix, but hadn't allowed them to use his house as a meeting place. This had pleased Voldemort, and he had allowed Sirius to be his official spy inside the Order of the Fried Turkey as he referred to it.
"Hey guys, ready to go home?" Sirius asked, grinning at them. Draco smirked back, while Raiden merely nodded. Sirius led the way to his car, happy to have the two staying with him but worried about Raiden's state of mind. He could see clearly that Raiden still hadn't properly dealt with the events at the end of the term but was closer to having done so.
'He needs to talk with Voldemort as soon as possible' Sirius thought. He entertained the notion of inviting the Dark Lord over for dinner; he wouldn't raise any eyebrows in his current appearance. Pleased with this plan, he guided the two students to the car, planning to send his owl, Nightwing to the Dark Lord as soon as they got home.
When they reached Grimmauld Place, Sirius sent Draco and Raiden upstairs, telling them to choose their own rooms. Raiden chose the one next to Sirius' while Draco chose one further down the hall. While they were getting settled, Sirius sat down at the kitchen table and wrote a quick note.
Emperor
Veneficus requires your presence for a meeting as soon as possible regarding distress caused by recent events. Would dinner on Tuesday suffice? Floo address is Padfoot's Den.
Grim
Nightwing took the note and leapt out the window just as Raiden came walking in. The three discussed the year in general, staying away from the painful end of it. They mainly discussed various ideas for moving the Dark Side's plans forward, and gathering more followers. Raiden loosened up a bit more as prank ideas and plans for animagus training helped to banish the thoughts of the death that he was responsible for.
Dinner was pizza, as none of them felt like cooking that night, and then several games of Exploding Snap preceded the eventual retirement to bed. As he was going to sleep, Sirius heard Nightwing tap at the window. Unrolling the parchment the bird carried, he smiled.
Grim
Prepare for my arrival on Tuesday five pm. Veneficus will be returned to normal by the end of the visit.
Emperor
The notes might seem odd to anyone reading them that didn't understand the codes but to those that did, they were perfectly comprehensible. They had given Voldemort the nickname of Emperor as he was the leader of the Dark Side, and had provided him with a list of the Avenger's nicknames. Voldemort now knew that Raiden needed his help and was coming to dinner on Tuesday to hopefully fix things. Sirius' nickname had been changed to Grim so that anyone who knew the Marauders wouldn't recognize who was being talked about.
On Tuesday, Raiden and Draco came hurtling down the stairs for dinner, having spent the day working on their homework, and had now got everything at least started, and at best finished. They had finished History of Magic, and had got halfway through their Ancient Runes and Arithmancy homework, and had written one paragraph each for Transfiguration, Potions, Astronomy and Herbology. They froze when they saw who was sitting at the kitchen table.
Sirius rose and said, "Hi guys. What's wrong?"
Draco gulped and said, "That's, that's" before giving up on speaking and merely bowed to Voldemort who had risen with Sirius. Raiden contented himself with a brief nod and a "Hello."
Sirius and Voldemort exchanged a look before Sirius pulled Raiden and Draco forward to the table, sitting them down. No further words were exchanged before the meal was finished, when Voldemort looked at Raiden and said "I'd like a private word, Raiden."
Raiden shrugged and followed Voldemort into the sitting room off the main lounge. He looked round, distinctly uneasy at being alone with his master, which did not go unnoticed by Voldemort. The Dark Lord sighed and sat down, gesturing for Raiden to do the same. Once the fourteen year old had done so, silence fell.
Voldemort broke it by saying, "You look like hell, Raiden. Have you been sleeping?"
Raiden shook his head. "No, Master. I can't stop seeing Cedric's face. I have nightmares about what happened. I can't have Dreamless Sleep potion too often for fear of becoming addicted."
Voldemort frowned. "Why are you having nightmares? It was a simple thing, you'd already halfway done it, all you did was finish what you started."
Raiden stared at Voldemort in disbelief. "Have you forgotten our revised goals Master? More to the point, have you forgotten that I don't like killing? I hated what I did and hearing you being so casual about it hurts!"
Voldemort scowled. "I was under the impression that you understood that some killing would be necessary, Raiden. The current administration will not go quietly, and the traditionalists will hate the ideas that we're trying to introduce. Plus there are the more fanatical Death Eaters to deal with too."
Raiden shrugged. "I don't care how you deal with the Death Eaters, Master, but why can't you understand what I feel about what happened to Cedric? He didn't have to die."
Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why not may I ask?"
Raiden scowled and hissed out, "Ever hear of memory charms, Master? You could have memory charmed him, no one would have been able to break it, short of torturing him into insanity and we both know the Light side doesn't have the stomach for that kind of thing."
"Memory charm him? Exactly how do you think memory charms work, Raiden?" Voldemort asked. He was not unsympathetic to Raiden's situation, he knew that his apprentice had more morals than he did, but he also thought that those morals were getting in the way more and more as Raiden grew older. He would have to find a way to work things so that Raiden wasn't asked to kill in cold blood, he was almost sure that he would lose his apprentice if he did.
Raiden looked at Voldemort before replying, "We haven't covered them yet, we do them in sixth year I think, but I believe that they work by getting rid of the information, they erase it so it can't be found again."
Voldemort shook his head. "No. What you're thinking of is how it works with Muggles. They don't have the mental abilities to know when they've been obliviated so the information is essentially lost to them forever. It is different with witches and wizards, and other magical beings. Obliviating a witch or wizard leaves clear signs, even days after the event, and the information isn't obliterated completely, what the charm does is cover it up so the subject doesn't remember that they know the information. If I had Obliviated Diggory, and then the two of you had gone back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore would have known that something was wrong, and he would have gone to the Ministry. I'm powerful yes, but a team of Obliviators, plus Dumbledore might have been able to reverse the charm. If that had happened, you would be in Azkaban right now. I couldn't have that so when you decided to go against orders and tried to kill Diggory for me, I took advantage of it and gave you your first lesson in casting the Unforgivables."
A small silence fell again, before Voldemort continued, "Do you know why everyone was so shocked at what happened?" Raiden shook his head so Voldemort continued, "It is almost impossible to "accidentally" cast an Unforgivable. The reason the Unforgivables are called such is because they, more than any other spells, need intent to work. You have to want to control someone, or hurt them, or kill them. You might not have been thinking specifically of killing Cedric, but you must have had some thoughts about stopping him, otherwise the spell would have fizzled out. Even with that, the amount of power you have must be phenomenal. No other fourteen year old would have been able to cast an Unforgivable on another human being with no prior training."
"Prior training?" Raiden asked, puzzled.
Voldemort nodded. "When learning the Unforgivables, you start with the Imperius curse, and start small, with spiders, before progressing to mice, cats, dogs, and finally humans. Then you repeat the process with the Cruciatus and finally the Killing Curse. This is so you can build up your strength and power so you're not drained like you were when you killed Diggory."
Raiden nodded. He was feeling somewhat better about what had happened, even though he still wished that Cedric hadn't have died. He understood that Cedric would have died either way; it wasn't his fault that Voldemort had ordered him to kill his fellow Champion. He was caught in between a rock and a hard place with no way out but to do as he was told. In order to thoroughly cement that thought in his mind he asked, "What would have happened if I had refused to kill him?"
Voldemort looked at him before answering coolly, "I would have done so, and then you would have been punished in front of Rabastan, Lucius, Severus and Sirius. After I was done, I would have invited them to have a go as well."
Raiden shivered inwardly, and then said, "OK, I think it's a good thing that I followed orders then."
Voldemort nodded before replying, "Yes it is. I won't ask you to do that very often Raiden, not at all if I can help it. You have to understand though that your age will not protect you for long. Once you come of age you will find yourself needing to prove yourself to them. Many want to be in the Inner Circle, and those in the Inner Circle will want to know if you're powerful enough to hold your position as my apprentice. You may find yourself having to Crucio a few of them in order to show that you're serious, and if they continue attacking after that, then you may have to kill them. Don't be afraid to show your power, they will respect you if they know that you're more powerful than they are."
Raiden nodded. "Alright. I do have a few more years yet though don't I?"
Voldemort nodded. "Yes. No Death Eater will touch you, apart from Lucius and Severus and I'm considering adding Rabastan to that group as well, as those that do will spend the rest of whatever meeting we're having screaming in pain."
Now Raiden smirked, his normal emotional state restored by the discussion he'd just had. He knew that what had happened was tragic but he understood his master's reasoning, especially the explanation about memory charms. He still wished that Voldemort had been the one to kill Cedric but he couldn't change things so he stopped worrying about it.
When he and Voldemort emerged from the sitting room they found Lucius and Narcissa sitting on the couch, watching Draco and Sirius play Exploding Snap with hidden amusement. They bowed to Voldemort, who nodded back, and looked at Raiden with concern.
"I'm OK now," Raiden said quietly, seeing that all eyes were on him. "Our Master here explained some things that I didn't know, which has helped to dissolve the issues I had. Everything's fine."
"Glad to hear it, Raiden," Lucius said, using Harry's Dark Side name for the first time as they were in the company of only Dark Side members. Raiden nodded to him and then looked startled when Voldemort handed him a parcel which he'd unshrunk after taking it from a pocket in his robe. Draco received a similar package.
"Open them," Voldemort said when the two merely stared at him. Both boys looked at each other and then held a competition as to who could open their parcel fastest. Raiden won though narrowly.
The parcels contained a deep black robe, with an animal embroidered on the back, and a mask. Draco's mask was silver, Raiden's was gold. The animals were their animagus forms, and they were embroidered in green.
"Thank you my Lord," they said.
Voldemort shrugged. "I'll give you packages to give to Miss Greengrass, Miss Granger and Mr Zabini. I will be introducing Raiden at the first meeting this summer but you all will be introduced at a gathering in the future, probably when you all graduate. Raiden will have to be introduced as he is my apprentice, and the robes are charmed to grow with you, and always be the perfect size so you don't have to worry about outgrowing them. The masks are summon-proof so don't go losing them, you won't be able to accio them from wherever you put them."
Raiden and Draco exchanged another glance before disappearing into the sitting room. When they emerged, Sirius and the Malfoys had to hold in a gasp. The two stood there, the hoods of their robes up, and the faceless gold and silver masks hiding their identities. As one the two Avengers knelt before Voldemort for a minute before rising and standing facing the other three adults. Then they pulled off the masks, and threw the hoods back, revealing their faces again.
"That was wicked!" Raiden said with a grin. Draco nodded in full agreement. Voldemort took his leave shortly after that, but not before telling Sirius that he expected the Avengers to have made some progress on their Animagus forms by the time of the first meeting. He wanted Raiden at least to show progress, and Sirius promised to set up the lessons like he had planned earlier in the year.
Draco and Raiden went back to Malfoy Manor shortly afterwards, both falling asleep sometime in the early morning hours with large grins on their faces. If Lucius and Narcissa noticed that their new masks were under their pillows they chose not to comment on it and instead left the two alone to dream of wizarding world reconstruction and what the future would be like under the rule of Lord Voldemort.