Chapter Twenty Seven: The First Meeting and the Start of School
Raiden was pacing round nervously in meeting hall of Voldemort's home. Riddle Manor remained a crumbling ruin on the outside but inside it had been fixed up to be the Dark Lord's main operational base. The meeting hall was one of the largest rooms in the manor and at the moment it contained two people, Raiden, and Voldemort. The older wizard looked at his apprentice with amusement and hissed, Calm yourself Raiden, they will not harm you. No one will know who you are except for Lucius, Severus, Sirius, Rabastan and myself. You will be hooded and masked, so your face will not be able to be seen. Just relax.
Raiden threw his master a dirty look and hissed back That's all well and good Master but won't Rabastan talk?
No. He doesn't know that you're Harry Potter, he knows you as Lord Raiden, my apprentice. That is the way it will stay as well. None of the rest will find out until it's time for the grand revelation as it were.
Raiden chuckled, which sounded very odd in parseltongue and then said, Very well. I assume Sirius will be robed and masked as well as Draco?
Voldemort nodded and restrained himself from rolling his eyes. Yes Raiden. The plan is as follows, I will summon the Death Eaters and they will arrive. You will enter when I give you the signal and stand at my right side, just behind me, with Sirius and Draco flanking you. Lucius and Severus will be standing beside me as well. Severus will be on my left and Lucius on my right so Lucius will be standing just in front of you. All the Death Eaters, with the exception of Lucius and Severus will do the whole bowing and scraping thing which is very tedious but necessary, and then I will introduce you. I will tell them that you are my apprentice, that you are not to be touched, and that any order you give them is to be treated with the same respect as an order given by myself. Sirius and Draco will be introduced as two members of your own group within our organization, and will be introduced by their Avenger nicknames. They too will be hooded and masked to prevent identification. All the Avengers will only be known by their codenames, with the exception of you, as you're the visible head of my secret intelligence division. Got it?
Yes Master. Will you summon them now?
Yes. Tell Lucius, Severus, Draco and Sirius to get in here, and tell Grim and Argentum to get dressed properly. Those hideous robes just won't do!
Raiden snickered as he headed into the small room off the main hall to relay the message. The "hideous robes" were in reality, Death Eater robes that had been charmed to flash red and gold at odd intervals and squeak messages such as "Slytherins are slimy" and "Gryffindors rule." It had been Sirius' idea of a prank and he'd thought it funny until Voldemort had Crucioed him. Raiden had protested the harsh treatment of his godfather, and that got the curse turned on him. Sirius had retreated into the antechamber and had spent the rest of the time trying to remove the curse. As Raiden walked through the door, Sirius looked up and smirked.
"Got it off finally!" he said triumphantly.
Raiden nodded. "Good work Grim, the Emperor sent me to tell you that he wants us out there in a few minutes appropriately dressed please. Lucius and Severus, I assume you know your parts?"
Lucius scowled at him. "I've been coming to these meetings since before you were born my Lord, so yes I know my part very well thank you very much." Severus merely scowled at his student when Raiden looked at him. The young Dark Lord shrugged and then inspected his two group members, seeing that they were wearing their robes and masks. Through the door they heard the slightly muffled CRACK of apparition, repeated over and over until all the Death Eaters were there. Lucius and Severus straightened their robes and masks before stepping out to take their place at their Lord's right and left sides, scowling at the others.
Voldemort surveyed his available forces with hidden disgust. Of his original twenty Death Eaters, only twelve had managed to stay out of Azkaban and several of those that had gone to prison had died in there. He had considered expanding his inner circle to five Death Eaters, but now he had to change his plans slightly.
'I need to recruit more before I start changing things round. Having Raiden with me changes things enough right now. I don't need more instability within the pecking order' he thought to himself, filing away the notion that he ought to discuss arranging a prison break. Maybe as Raiden's first mission, when he was older. For now he needed to stabilize the forces he had. He noticed the not very well hidden curiosity of the Death Eaters at the appearance of Raiden, Sirius and Draco, and decided to make the introductions otherwise nothing would get done at all that night.
"Welcome, my Death Eaters" he said, his voice taking on the strange hissing quality he liked to use when holding meetings. The Death Eaters nodded back but remained silent. Voldemort continued, "Many of you believed me to be dead, when I lost my powers fourteen years ago. You then slipped back amongst respectable society, pretending to have been under the Imperius curse. Not one of you tried to find me. I confess myself disappointed."
The Death Eaters now shivered, and one of them dropped to the ground, almost groveling as he said, "Forgive us please my Lord, we didn't know where you were, and we couldn't search without looking suspicious."
Hidden behind his gold mask, Raiden winced slightly as Voldemort put the unfortunate Death Eater under the Cruciatus curse. The Dark Lord's voice was cold when he said, "Get up Avery. I do not forget, nor do I forgive. I want fourteen years repayment before I forgive you." Avery scrambled to get up, and hurriedly retreated to his place in the semi-circle of Death Eaters.
Once Avery had retaken his place, Voldemort said, "I trust you have noticed the three new arrivals standing behind me." Nods greeted this statement and he continued. "The one in the gold mask is my apprentice, Lord Raiden. The other two are Grim and Argentum, and they are the head of my new intelligence division. None of them are allowed to be cursed by any of you, especially not my apprentice. If I hear of any of you trying to curse Raiden, or his two second in commands, then the one that does will either be dealt with by Raiden himself or by me. Do not try it. If you attack Raiden, he might only use the Cruciatus. If you are dealt with by me, you might find your life ending is that clear?"
The Death Eaters all nodded and stared at the three intelligence division heads. They were smart enough to know that the names were most likely code names but it wasn't their place to know their real names so they left it alone. Voldemort surveyed the group, pleased at their acceptance of the three Avengers. He subtly gestured for Raiden to move forward, which he did, and hissed quietly, You may take Grim and Argentum to the other room now, I have business to discuss that doesn't require your presence. When it is just the Inner Circle left I will recall you and you alone. Grim and Argentum are free to leave should they wish.
Raiden nodded and replied, Yes Master. Is the Floo activated for departures? Voldemort nodded so Raiden led Sirius and Draco out of the room, and into the small antechamber where a fire was burning merrily, just waiting for the Floo powder to be activated. Two flashes of flame later and Raiden sat down at the small table to wait patiently for the bulk of the meeting to be finished. It didn't take long, and fifteen minutes later Raiden found himself in the room with only Voldemort and four other Death Eaters there.
"Lord Raiden, I trust you weren't bored while you waited?" Voldemort asked.
Raiden shook his head and replied, "No Master I wasn't."
Voldemort seemed satisfied as he indicated the four Death Eaters, only one of which was unknown to Raiden. "This, my apprentice, is my inner circle. Lucius Malfoy is on my right, and Severus Snape is on my left. Then we have Rabastan Lestrange beside Lucius and finally Augustus Rookwood beside Severus. They are my closest advisors, and will be instructing you in the Dark Arts and other subjects when I cannot do so. I will be teaching you Parseltongue spells, as we are the only two Parselmouths in Britain at the moment and it would be a shame to see a whole class of spells go to waste through lack of users. Listen to them as you would me when they are teaching you."
Raiden nodded and examined the four in front of him curiously. He knew Rabastan, Lucius and Severus of course but had to keep up the pretence that he was meeting them for the first time. They all shook hands, and then Rookwood asked, "My Lord, would it be possible for us to see what Lord Raiden looks like under his mask?"
"No you may not" Raiden said, speaking for the first time. Rookwood nodded, disappointed, but able to understand why his request was denied. He supposed that the head of the intelligence division had the right to keep his true identity secret. Nodding, he bowed and left, with Voldemort's permission of course. Rabastan followed him and once only Voldemort, Raiden, Lucius and Severus were left, Raiden removed his mask with a sigh of relief.
"It gets hot under there" he said at the odd looks he was getting from the three other wizards.
Lucius and Severus shook their heads, before Lucius enquired, "Ever hear of cooling charms Raiden?" At Raiden's shocked look the two Death Eaters groaned.
"Just because they're spelled against anti-summoning charms and other things does not mean that they can't have other spells put on them, Raiden," Voldemort said with some amusement. Raiden huffed in annoyance and promptly put a permanent cooling charm on the mask.
"I'll have to tell the rest of the Avengers that," he remarked. Voldemort nodded before waving his wand and creating three chairs before indicating that they should sit down. Once they were all seated, they started discussing plans for the upcoming year.
"Hold on, you're telling me that the Ministry is refusing to believe what I said about you being back Master," Raiden said in disbelief.
Voldemort nodded, looking pleased. "Yes Raiden that's exactly what I'm saying. However, the Ministry is trying to discredit you and Dumbledore for saying that I'm back, and they're going as far as to put a Ministry approved person as Defence against the Dark Arts teacher this year."
"Who is this person and can they teach?" Raiden asked. Defence was his favorite subject, despite the number of teachers he'd had over the years.
Lucius shook his head gloomily. "The person is Minister Fudge's undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge. They are planning on teaching a "Ministry approved" defence curriculum this year, and from what I've heard it will be mostly out of a book. I've taken a look at it and the book could quite easily put an insomniac to sleep."
Raiden's look of curiosity turned to outrage. "So we're being taught out of a boring book, and with the Ministry's stance on the current state of affairs it's a pretty safe bet that we'll hardly be encouraged to practice the spells. It's our OWL year for Merlin's sake! What are we supposed to do – be able to do the spells for the very first time in front of the examiners?!"
"Unfortunately it seems that way, Raiden," Severus put in. He didn't like the sound of what was going on, he didn't want his students suffering because the Ministry was being a bunch of idiots. Raiden sighed and then looked at Voldemort.
"It would be very out of character for Harry Potter to remain silent about your return, Master. If I don't continue to speak out and try to convince people, it might make Dumbledore suspicious. Will that harm our plans?"
Voldemort tilted his head to the side. "Since the general public prefers not to believe you, the only harm you'll do is to Harry Potter's reputation. In fact, the more the public stick their heads in the sand, the more it will help. So, continue to try and convince people, but don't make too much of an enemy of the Ministry."
Raiden nodded. "OK, Master. This year should be interesting at least. Should I start a Defence group for Slytherin so we can actually pass our OWLs and NEWTs?"
Severus shook his head. "No. I'll offer private tutoring to our house as well as any other house that wants it. I'm betting that most of the Ravenclaws will join, as will some Hufflepuffs, they want good grades as well. Gryffindors will be the interesting ones; will they be able to overcome their aversion to us "slimy snakes" for the sake of their Defence grades?"
Raiden shrugged. "Not sure sir but the Avengers will all be there." Severus nodded, already planning which syllabus to use and which books. Mentally making notes and plans he barely acknowledged Voldemort's dismissal, which amused the Dark Lord. Any other Death Eater would have been Crucioed but Voldemort understood that Severus could get deeply absorbed in planning and hardly notice others around him which was just another quirk of the man that Voldemort accepted because of his skill as a Potions Master. Soon after, Lucius and Raiden went back to Malfoy Manor, Raiden by Floo and Lucius by Apparation. Raiden couldn't wait until he was old enough to learn, even though Lucius had said that it wasn't a very pleasant feeling.
Raiden landed in the fireplace, feeling worn out from the meeting. He needed to sleep, it was the first of September the next day and he wanted to be awake for the ride. Stumbling to bed, he noticed vaguely that Draco was already asleep, and he quickly stripped off his outer clothing, not bothering to change any further and fell into his own bed. He was asleep soon after, not noticing when Lucius quietly entered and changed his clothes into pyjamas using a switching spell. Raiden didn't awaken until the morning when Draco dumped a vase of water on his face to make him wake up and get ready for the trip to Hogwarts.
At King's Cross, the station was noisy and crowded as per usual. The Avengers quickly got their own compartment as they'd done the previous two years and spent the train ride discussing their summers.
"So, how was the rest of the meeting?" Draco asked Raiden, after ensuring that the compartment was layered with silencing spells and a locking spell was on the door.
Raiden shrugged. "Apparently we've got a "Ministry approved" Defence professor this year, and I'm under orders to continue to try and disrupt the Ministry's comfortable world view as it were. Seeing the looks they were getting from the rest of the Avengers, Raiden sighed, and took out the packages that Voldemort had given him.
"It was the first Death Eater meeting last night since Voldemort's rebirth. We discussed plans for the wizarding world and this year. My Master gave me these to give to you. The robes are charmed to always be the perfect size and the masks are unable to be summoned away from you, as are the robes. We won't be called to full meetings, only myself, Argentum here, and Grim will be called to those. If my Master wants to meet with all of us then he'll arrange a separate meeting. We're his secret intelligence division he said, and as such, I, Grim and Argentum will be the visible heads with the rest of you remaining secret."
Hermione smirked. "So we're Lord Voldemort's spies are we?"
Raiden nodded silently. The rest of the train ride passed with only school stuff being discussed as the spells were taken off the door. The new robes from Voldemort were quickly packed at the bottom of their trunks, safe from discovery.
When they reached the Great Hall after a wet ride in the carriages, Draco poked Raiden in the ribs. A short woman that looked remarkably like a toad was sitting next to Dumbledore, dressed in a horrible pink cardigan. She had wide mouth, pale eyes, and a fake smile plastered onto her face. The Slytherins took an immediate dislike to her, and by the rest of the students' muttering, they didn't like her either.
"Hem hem" the new Defence professor said, interrupting Dumbledore in his notices. The students exchanged smirks while the staff scowled at her. McGonagall looked positively hawk like while Sprout and Flitwick looked no less annoyed. Snape hid his disgust well but the rest of the staff were restraining themselves from hissing in outrage.
"Thank you Headmaster for those kind words of introduction" she breathed.
Daphne leaned over to Raiden and muttered, "She even sounds silly. I mean, didn't she go through puberty – she sounds like a little girl."
The boys nearby snorted, but quietly as they listened to a speech that put most of the hall to sleep. At the end, Raiden poked Blaise in the ribs and hissed, "Wake up, that was important!"
"What was important, all she was saying was waffle," Blaise slurred. The food and long trip had almost put him to sleep.
Raiden shook his head. "That "waffle" hid some important things Diablo, like the fact that the Ministry is interfering with the running of Hogwarts. Umbridge is the tip of the spear; the Ministry is trying to mount a takeover of our school."
"What are we supposed to do about it?" Blaise hissed back. Raiden shrugged. "I'm guessing the Defence classes this year are going to be worthless and the Ministry is going to try and censor anything we say that isn't in line with their view of the world. So, what we do, once we've got an idea of what she's like, is mount a quiet but pointed rebellion."
"Mhmm, lets wait and see what she's like before we do anything though. If she's as bad as we think, then we'll unleash the combined powers of the Avengers and the Marauders on her" Blaise muttered as they headed down to the common room. Raiden, Draco and Daphne nodded in unison before memorizing the first password of the year, "Ministry Morons," and heading in to bed. Umbridge wasn't going to know what hit her if she tried to take over Hogwarts.