Chapter Thirty Three: Arguments, OWL's and a New Recruit

"I don't want to learn from that bitch!" Raiden spat as he paced round the study in Riddle Manor.

Voldemort leaned back in his chair and replied, "She is one of my best Death Eaters, Raiden, you can't let personal feelings get in the way of your education."

"Education? She'll drive me insane!" Raiden hissed back.

Voldemort let out a low growl and snapped "Enough! You will learn from Bellatrix and if you give her any trouble I'll curse you myself. You can't let the fact that she sent Sirius through the veil stop you from learning from her. You know as well as I do that we can get Sirius back so it's not as if she killed him."

Raiden spun round and faced Voldemort, too angry to care that he was in danger of being cursed for disrespect before snarling "I. Will. Not. Have. Her. As. An. Instructor. I'd rather learn from a drunken House Elf than that insane cow!"

The next thing he knew was pain. Voldemort had moved so fast he hadn't seen the movement of his wand. The Cruciatus was just as painful as he remembered it being previously, and this time it was held longer. After a minute and a half Voldemort ended it and watched coolly as Raiden struggled to find his feet. The almost sixteen year old Dark Lord in training hissed in pain as he sat back down, his body protesting at the movement, small shakes in his limbs betraying the intensity at which the curse had been cast. Voldemort waited until Raiden met his eyes again at which point he said, "I hope I've made my point clear on this matter? You will learn from Bellatrix, she can teach you things that Lucius and Severus can't, and you will leave your personal feelings and grudges out of it. Understand?"

Raiden hesitated for a moment before muttering resentfully "Yes." A powerful stinging hex hit him and he amended his answer to "Yes Master." Voldemort glared at him and then tucked his wand up his sleeve.

"Your other instructors apart from Bellatrix will be Lucius, Severus and myself. Your training will cover things like politics, stealth, Dark Arts, fencing, potions, finances, dueling and other things. Most of the training will cover things needed for you to be able to hold your own when you reveal yourself as my apprentice and second in command. Other parts of your training will cover what you need to know as the heir of a pureblood family. As the last of the Potters you will be taking full control of your affairs when you turn seventeen next year and you need to learn to manage them. Draco will also be taking some of those lessons too, although as his father is still alive he won't have as many duties to deal with as you will."

Raiden shifted in his seat, wincing slightly as still sore muscles protested a bit before going quiet. He could have done with a post Cruciatus potion but Voldemort wouldn't allow him to have one until they were finished. Ignoring the pain for the moment, he asked a question that had sprung up in his mind moments before.

"If I am revealed as your apprentice and second in command, the Ministry might well try to freeze my accounts. How am I supposed to manage them if I can't actually get to them?"

Voldemort smirked. "The goblins don't care too much about Ministry politics, Raiden. They only freeze accounts if it's absolutely necessary and if it's at the request of the vault owner. Your godfather was able to access his money while on the run, so you'll be able to as well. Although, it brings up a good point" he trailed off as an idea occurred to him.

"Master? What are you thinking?" Raiden asked.

Voldemort smirked at him. "I was just thinking that we have two possible routes here. One, we could have the Prophecy being fulfilled and Harry Potter dying – we'd make a golem of you and then I'd kill it, thus satisfying the prediction. Or we could go the Star Wars route and have you publicly turn from the Light, crushing Dumbledore and his Order and demoralizing them quite nicely. After all, Dumbledore would be horrified to discover that you were never Light in the first place."

Raiden thought about it for a few minutes and then smirked back at his master. "I prefer the Star Wars route Master. It's simpler and less hassle with identities. Also, what about doing it on graduation? You turn up with the Death Eaters, under instructions not to kill anyone except Dumbledore and any of the Order of the Phoenix who resist. Then when Dumbledore and everyone else looks to me to save them from the big bad Dark Lord and his minions, I'll walk across and join you. We might as well call our Order spies over to us at the same time, to save any more confusion over loyalties. If we word it just right we might be able to subvert quite a few Order members and can you imagine the look on Dumbledore's face when Sirius and Remus join us?"

Voldemort thought over the plan and then smiled. "Brilliant. We'll go with that then, and finalise the details as we get closer to the time. Will Remus join us?"

Raiden shrugged. "Sirius was working on him before he went through the veil. I haven't spoken to him since that happened yet, I imagine that if we were to tell him the truth, tell him that we can get Sirius back that we might have a new member. He, like Sirius will probably want to join the Avengers though. He's really too mild mannered to be a Death Eater but gathering information and assembling it would be a perfect job for him. He's like Hermione in a way – both of them are Gryffindors that would probably be more suited to Ravenclaw."

Voldemort nodded in agreement and the two fell silent. Finally Raiden looked up at his master and asked, "So what will Bitchatrix – ah I mean Bellatrix, be teaching me?"

Voldemort smirked at his apprentice's slip of the tongue and said, "How to use spells other than Dark Arts in dueling. Things like transfiguration, charms, household spells, etc etc. You can cause a person quite a lot of harm with those you know."

Raiden grinned and nodded back, his mind already thinking up ways of harming his unwanted tutor without leaving obvious clues. 'Or' he thought to himself, 'maybe letting her teach me some things and then turning them against her, I can always say that it wasn't my fault that she let herself be surpassed by her pupil.' Smirking inwardly at the thought of being rid of the bitch that had deprived him of Sirius for a year, he listened attentively as Voldemort outlined his plans for the upcoming school year.

When he returned to Malfoy Manor he walked straight into another argument, this one between Lucius and Draco. Sighing, he walked round the bickering pair, shaking his head when neither bothered to say hello and went to the library. After attempting to read a book and being distracted by the row outside the door he decided to eavesdrop.

"I WILL NOT MARRY THAT COW!" Draco yelled at the top of his lungs. Raiden shook his head again, surmising that the argument was about the marriage contract between the Malfoy and Parkinson families, which had Pansy betrothed to Draco.

Lucius hissed in a manner not unlike his Animagus form and snapped back, "Draco! I've had enough of your two year old style tantrums on this matter. The match with the Parkinson's is a good one; I don't know why you're complaining."

Draco sighed, lowering his voice to a more conversational tone and volume and replied, "Because Father, I was thinking about it. In terms of magical strength it is a good match but what about succession? Our family isn't particularly fertile, the last few Malfoy generations have produced at most two children per generation, and the Parkinson's are about as fertile as us. What if Pansy and I are unable to conceive? Plus she's not exactly pretty, hardly someone I'd be able to take to a party and she's not very intelligent. I want someone I can actually talk to, and know that they understand what I'm saying. Most of the advanced concepts are over Pansy's head a lot of the time and she got heaps of tutoring for the OWL's. This year and next will only be worse."

Lucius sat down abruptly; he hadn't considered that side of things. He acknowledged Draco's point and said as much. "Have you thought of who else you might want to marry if Pansy is such a disagreeable option?"

Draco nodded immediately. Smirking he said, "Yes, I was planning to elope with Ginny Weasley." He then had the satisfaction of watching his father go so pale he thought he might faint before regaining his normal demeanor.

"I trust you are joking about that Draco. Have you forgotten that we have a blood feud with that family?"

Draco examined his nails and replied in a bored tone, "Of course not, I was joking. The Weasleys are extremely fertile, they breed like bloody rabbits but Ginevra does nothing for me. I am interested in Nora Moon though."

"Moon, hmm, good family, pureblood, a good amount of magic, hardly any squibs in the last few generations, fairly fertile, yes, if she's interested then I won't oppose it," Lucius murmured, before looking up to meet his son's eyes.

"Talk to Nora, if she's interested then we'll see about arranging a new contract with her family. The contract with the Parkinson's is purely social at the moment, as neither of you are of age yet and as such it can be broken easily. Don't stuff this up Draco" Lucius warned as he rose from the chair he was in and went off in search of his adopted son.

Contrary to Raiden's belief, Lucius had noticed his arrival and he wanted to speak with him. Thinking for a moment, he headed for the library where he found Raiden curled up with a book on obscure transfigurations and the nasty things that could be done to the human body with them. Giving no reaction to Raiden's choice of reading material, he sat down in the chair next to Raiden's and settled down to wait.

After a couple of minutes Raiden looked up. He had heard Lucius' entry and noticed the man sitting next to him but he'd wanted to finish the page he was reading first before talking. Marking his place, he put the book down and turned to face Lucius.

"Is the argument finished?" he queried.

Lucius nodded. "Yes. Do you agree with what Draco said about Pansy Parkinson?" He was under no illusions that Raiden wouldn't have eavesdropped.

Raiden tilted his head to the side and considered the question. Finally he nodded his head. "Yes. She's been hanging round us ever since first year, always trying to touch Draco and invading his personal space. She seems jealous of anyone else spending time with him, even me. It's as if she considers him her personal property and Draco doesn't like that. She's also not terribly bright and Draco does like to have an intelligent conversation. He doesn't want an empty headed show trophy type of wife."

Lucius nodded, before holding in a laugh as Raiden's eyes widened when something occurred to him. Wide green eyes met cool silver as Raiden asked, "Er, my father didn't promise me to anyone did he?"

Lucius couldn't hold in the chuckle and Raiden looked affronted at his amusement. Holding up a hand he got himself under control and said, "Don't look so annoyed Raiden, it is a sensible question for you to ask at your age. The answer is no I don't think he did. I wasn't friends with your father, for obvious reasons, but I would have heard about it if he'd arranged a marriage for you. I believe that Daphne's father approached him about betrothing the two of you, but your father turned him down. He said that if you and Daphne were meant to be together then you would be and if you weren't then no good would come of forcing you together. He wanted you to marry a woman you loved, not someone that you hated and were only marrying because you had to."

Raiden snorted. "I wonder if my father was a seer, because Daphne and I have ended up togther anyway."

Lucius hummed an agreement before asking, "Do you intend to put a promise ring on her finger anytime soon?"

Raiden looked thoughtful at that. "I don't know. We haven't really discussed it, I think we want to wait for next year, see if we're still together. If I give her a promise ring now then everyone will be asking when the engagement is being announced, and they'll expect me to pop the question either during seventh year or at graduation and our Lord has other plans for graduation."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Oh. What plans?" Raiden grinned and outlined the plans for the upcoming year, as well as graduation. Once he'd finished, Lucius smirked in approval before frowning in puzzlement.

"There's one thing I don't quite get though Raiden. What is Star Wars?"

Raiden choked at this question before quickly explaining the muggle film saga to his guardian. Seeing that Lucius still looked puzzled he sighed. "Think of it like the Wizarding world, you have the Republic, which is the British Wizarding world, and then you have the Jedi who are the Light side witches and wizards. Then you have the Sith, who are the Dark side or us. The Force is like magic. Now, the films tell the story of Anakin Skywalker who is the subject of a prophecy that says that he'll bring balance to the Force. He is the Chosen One basically. He grows up as a Jedi, but turns to the Dark Side because he wants to save his wife. Basically the Dark Side wins for a time and then the Light Side fights back."

Lucius still looked a bit puzzled but accepted the fact that he wouldn't fully understand the films unless he saw them. Finally he asked, "So what does this muggle film saga have to do with our Lord's plans?"

Raiden chuckled. "When Anakin turns to the Dark side he helps wipe out his former friends and allies. His former master, Obi-Wan, who for our analogy is Dumbledore, is utterly crushed and demoralized. What we plan to do is have Lord Voldemort and all the Death Eaters show up at the front gates on graduation day, after the ceremony. Then when everyone turns to me, expecting me to save them, I will walk across and publicly join you. Dumbledore will be shocked and horrified, as will most of the crowd and we can quietly round up the Order of the Phoenix, along with Dumbledore and then we can set out our terms. We don't want a bloodbath here, we want to lay out our terms and hopefully most people will accept them in return for a cessation in hostility. By that time, most of the Ministry staff will hopefully be on our side and we can do the takeover legally. Then we replace Dumbledore, and any other staff that are unsuitable and go on with our lives."

Lucius thought about it, it was a bold plan for sure. Shaking his head he said, "OK, Raiden, I'll get the specifics next year when we're closer to the time. Now, what else did you and our Master discuss?"

Raiden scowled. "He wants Bellatrix to teach me stuff, along with you, Severus and himself. I didn't want Bellatrix as a tutor so I was thinking of ways to get out of having to learn from her."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Hence your choice of reading material I presume" he remarked. Raiden smirked but said nothing. Just then he felt a light tap on his mental shields. Recognizing his master's presence he lowered them enough for Voldemort to get in.

Raiden if you somehow manage to curse Bellatrix out of existence I will trace it back to you. You will not like what happens should I do so. She is to remain alive at the end of each of your sessions do I make myself clear?

(sigh) Yes Master

Raiden cut the connection, wondering how Voldemort seemed to know his plan for dealing with Bellatrix. He then remembered that Narcissa and Bellatrix were sisters and his dreams of revenge abruptly died. He didn't want to hurt Narcissa by killing her sister, he knew how it felt to have a family member die and he didn't want to be responsible for causing someone else to feel that pain. Growling, he switched targets mentally and planned for getting rid of some of the other more fanatical Death Eaters.

"Well, what did our Master have to say?" Lucius prompted.

Raiden looked up, startled; he'd forgotten that Lucius was there. Stretching slightly to work out a kink in his spine he replied, "He wanted to tell me that if Bellatrix somehow died while she's tutoring me that he will trace it back to me and then I'd be dealt with. So I was just thinking about how to remove some of the other more fanatical idiots in our organization."

Lucius smirked. "If you're worried about hurting Narcissa's feelings then don't be. She and Bellatrix parted company some time ago; they are no more than icily civil to each other when they meet. Narcissa has been after me to hit her sister with a "stray" curse or two for years now." Seeing that Raiden still looked uncomfortable he added, "Azkaban broke her mind quite thoroughly Raiden, there's almost nothing left of who she used to be. She's totally insane now, even our Master has a hard time getting her to stay on track and focused. You'd be doing us a favor if you found a way to deal with her."

Raiden nodded slowly. He didn't like contemplating hurting someone, or killing them, despite being who he was. His morals were still very much in place and extremely strong. Finally he went back to his book; the next chapter was entitled "Liquid to Liquid Transfiguration." As he read, the seeds of an idea started to take root. Smirking, he shut the book and went in search of dinner, having just thought of a relatively painless way of getting rid of the Death Eaters that were too fanatical about blood purity to risk having around. He might agree with the need to get them out of the way but that didn't mean he wanted to torture them to death either.

A couple of weeks later Raiden and Draco were in the sitting room on one of the couches, both holding envelopes and looking very nervous. Across from them, on the other couch was Lucius, Narcissa, and Remus. Remus had asked to be allowed to visit Raiden and Lucius had agreed, this would give Raiden an opportunity to continue to convert Remus. At the moment though, getting Remus to switch sides was the last thing on Raiden's mind. The envelopes that he and Draco were holding were their OWLs and they suddenly weren't all that confident about their grades.

"Well go on Harry, open it" Remus encouraged quietly. Raiden and Draco looked at each other before taking a deep breath and opening the envelopes together. They scanned them quickly before letting out twin whoops of delight.

The OWLs were as follows.

Passing Grades: O, E, A.

Failing Grades: P, D, T.

Draco Lucius Malfoy

Ancient Runes O

Arithmancy O

Astronomy E

Charms O

Defence Against the Dark Arts E

History of Magic E

Herbology E

Potions O

Transfiguration E

Total number of OWL's awarded: 9

Harry James Potter

Ancient Runes E

Arithmancy E

Astronomy E

Charms O

Defence Against the Dark Arts O

History of Magic E

Herbology O

Potions O

Transfiguration O

Total number of OWL's awarded: 9

Each of them had got no less than an E in any exam and it was amusing that they had the same scores in Astronomy, Charms, History of Magic and Potions. Raiden had scored one more O than Draco but that could be because of Draco's well advertised dislike of dirt. Draco had outscored Raiden in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy but Raiden had outscored him in Defence and Transfiguration.

Both Lucius and Remus were pleased. The two boys had worked extremely hard to get those scores, hard enough that Lucius held back the comments on "only four Outstandings" that he wanted to make to Draco. He knew that getting Outstanding on every exam was almost impossible so he held his tongue. Exceeds Expectations was good enough, at least for now. If Draco didn't improve on the NEWT's though then he would have something to say.

Remus was ecstatically telling Raiden that he'd managed to outscore both his father and his mother. Apparently James Potter had only managed six OWL's and his mother had managed eight. Raiden was pleased to hear this but secretly sad as well. At times he still missed his parents, and he would have given anything to hear James and Lily tell him how proud they were of him. For the first time, he started to think of what they would say if they could see him now. He had a feeling that despite Voldemort's changed goals they wouldn't be very impressed with their son being the Dark Lord's apprentice.

Shaking his head to clear it of the depressing thoughts that had crept in, Raiden smiled and began discussing what the coming year would bring. He noticed Remus become more relaxed and less wary and defensive as time passed and wondered how to tactfully bring up the topic of switching sides. As it turned out, Remus did it for him.

"Harry could we talk for a minute, in private?" he asked. Raiden looked at him and then nodded, rising from the couch and leading Remus to his bedroom, locking the door and putting up Silencing charms and a host of other spells that would ensure complete privacy. When he was finished he turned and looked at his honorary godfather expectantly.

"What do you want to speak with me about Remus?" he asked.

Remus looked uncertain briefly before he gathered his courage and said, "Sirius was talking with me about this group of yours, the Avengers. He told me that Voldemort had changed his goals and now doesn't want to kill every muggle born and muggle in sight. He mentioned that I would be allowed to join the Avengers if I wished. Is this true?"

Raiden sat down and thought of how best to approach the question. He wanted Remus on his side, rather desperately truth be told. He didn't want Remus and Sirius facing each other on opposite sides of a battlefield, should it come to that. Nor did he want to feel that a member of his family was his enemy. Finally he sighed.

"Everything Sirius told you is true. To demonstrate Voldemort's changed goals, Hermione Granger is one of the Avengers and she's also one of my closest friends. He and I have come up with the terms that we want for the Wizarding World. They include equality for everyone Remus, no more discrimination against werewolves for example. The secrecy of our world would be maintained as charms would be placed on each Muggle-born and half blood to ensure that they don't speak of the Wizarding World to any Muggle who isn't informed of our world. Those charms would apply to the witch or wizard's immediate family as well."

He hesitated before adding, "Sirius, he didn't tell you about the exact relationship between Voldemort and myself did he?" He didn't think so, the parchment that Sirius had signed should have protected him but he wanted to make sure.

Remus shook his head. "No. He said that it was a question that would be answered only if I joined the Avengers and signed a piece of parchment. Whatever that means" he finished. Raiden smiled relieved. His secret was safe. Sirius had told Remus nothing that would truly be damaging should it leak. As far as anyone knew, the Avengers were a group of school kids, like the Marauders had been, only bigger.

"Do you want to join us, Remus? You can only learn the rest of it if you join. There is no discrimination with us, you can be yourself and not have to hide what you are. Please."

Remus looked at his honorary godson and then thought, 'To hell with it.' He wasn't being used on the Light side, too many viewing him with suspicion just because he was a werewolf. Even in the Order of the Phoenix he was kept in the dark a lot of the time. Finally he nodded.

"Where do I sign?" he asked, and was rewarded with a large smile from Raiden and a piece of parchment appeared in front of him. As soon as he finished signing, a glow appeared around him briefly and he felt magic wash through him. He sat back and looked at Raiden with curiosity.

"So what's the big secret?" he queried.

Raiden smirked and replied, "The secret is the nature of the relationship that exists between me and Voldmort. I have been his apprentice since I was eight years old. It was my ideas for our world that he adopted, not the other way round. I am responsible for getting him to come round to the fact that the Muggle borns are needed in our world to stop the problem of inbreeding. All the Muggle-borns will be screened prior to coming to Hogwarts and the strongest ones will be permitted to enter. Those that aren't strong enough will have their magic bound and their memory of any accidental magic that was done will be Obliviated. Those Muggle-borns and half-bloods that choose to live in the Muggle world will have the "no talking about magic to Muggles" restriction placed on them but they won't have their magic taken away. The idea is to make the magic strong again with infusions of new blood while limiting the exposure of our world as much as possible. Under the current regime there have been far too many close calls. We aim to stop the Muggles from finding out about us. They have about a million to one population advantage over us and weapons that could wipe us out in one strike should they choose to take that route. We can't chance that."

Remus was in shock. His best friends' son was the apprentice of the man that had killed them! It boggled the mind. He listened to what Raiden was saying though and the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. He agreed with Raiden about the too many close calls and thought that it would be a good plan. Seeing that Raiden was waiting for his response he said, "Well. I think it's a good plan. I'm in. What do I have to do?"

Raiden smiled in relief. "Nothing for now. I'll arrange a proper set of Avenger robes for you, and we have to pick a name for you. Not Moony, that would be recognized by our enemies. Sirius was codenamed Grim. My Avenger name is Veneficus, Hermione's is Athena, Draco's is Argentum, Blaise Zabini's is Diablo and Daphne's is Krusa. The robes are black with your Animagus form stitched on the back. You won't attend Death Eater meetings for the most part, but if you do, make sure you're wearing your robes. The Death Eaters won't harm you; they face either me or my master if they do, or worse, both of us." He hesitated a bit and then reached forward, pulling the surprised werewolf into a brief but strong hug.

"Welcome to the Dark Side, Moony" he whispered.