Chapter Thirty-Four: Horcruxes and Training
It was two weeks before Raiden and Draco had to go back to school but the two young wizards were not thinking of that. Instead, they faced each other in the training hall at Riddle Manor, which was really a large cave underneath the house itself. Both had their wands and Raiden had been instructed not to use wandless magic at all. They also both had swords.
At the signal to start came, Draco started casting curses which Raiden dodged, shielded against or simply watched as they sailed past. He cast a few low level ones himself, just letting Draco tire himself out while he planned. Casting a discreet charm on his sword blade, he raised it, prepared to go on the offensive.
A low humming noise filled the room as Raiden attacked with his sword, the blade flashing in a series of strikes that Draco was hard pressed to block. The unexpected physical attack had caught Draco off guard and thus he was at a disadvantage. He rallied quickly enough and soon the two blades were locked together.
"Now what Raiden? What other tricks have you got for me?" Draco half sneered. They were friends but in this room that was left at the door. Raiden smirked. "This" he answered, disengaging his blade, somersaulting backwards and raising his wand.
A series of curses, hexes and jinxes flew at Draco, but all were cast in Parseltongue, meaning that any counters had to be cast in the same language. The blond wizard was forced to duck and dodge instead of shield and he was furious. He didn't like Raiden getting the upper hand.
"Reducto!" he snarled, aiming at Raiden's torso. If it had hit, it would have done a lot of damage but Raiden merely smirked. The charm on his blade activated as the curse hit it, and rebounded into the wall.
"How, what the hell did you do?" Draco demanded, stopping the duel and running over to Raiden in order to examine his sword. Raiden smirked again before replying, "Modified Parseltongue shield charm, and a Parseltongue Unbreakable charm as well Draco. They will protect the blade and deflect any spells that hit it. Even the Unforgivables. I got the idea from Star Wars; the charms give it the necessary deflection properties. I didn't feel it was necessary to have the whole glowing thing going on as well though. Distracts you from the fight. Shall we continue?"
Draco shook his head in amazement but walked back across the room. "Let's see how good those charms are then" he called out before firing a steady stream of every spell imaginable at his friend. Raiden stood there, balanced and ready to go. He half closed his eyes, stretching out with his magic, dropping into the almost-trance that he used when fencing, allowing his magic to guide him. It never put him wrong.
Stepping to the side he deflected a Bone-Breaking curse and a Stunner, before whipping his wand up to shield against a Vomiting Hex, an Organ Rejection Curse and the Knee Reversal Jinx. Smoothly, he responded with several nasty curses, and sent a Scourgify charm in the middle of it. Draco was so busy deflecting the nastier curses that he failed to block the Scourgify. The duel ended when Lucius stepped in, laughing at the sight of Draco snarling at Raiden round a mouthful of soap.
"Well done Raiden that was quite a performance. If you wouldn't mind stopping the Scourgify now, I think his mouth's clean enough" he chuckled. Raiden smiled and stopped the charm, grinning at the profanities that spewed from Draco's mouth as soon as he did so.
"Um are you sure his mouth's clean, that language was filthy" he remarked which set Lucius off again. Raiden retired to the side of the room where he found a towel, thoughtfully provided by Remus who hadn't watched the fight as he was recovering from the full moon. The three wizards made their way up to the main house where they encountered an annoying sight.
"Bellatrix" Lucius greeted his sister in law, noting the tension in Raiden skyrocket as he caught sight of her. The tutoring sessions with her were not going well. Bellatrix took every opportunity to demonstrate the curses on Raiden instead of the animals that were brought in as demonstration tools. This had caused the resentment and anger inside the young Apprentice to intensify with each session.
"Lucius, I trust you haven't worn my student out already" she purred. Raiden hissed in a snake like manner and she took a step back before recovering. "Into the usual room, we'll be covering liquid to liquid transfiguration today" she said in a businesslike tone.
"I'm not going to have you at my back bitch" he hissed at her, allowing some of his pent up anger to bleed through into his voice. He was as tightly wound as a steel spring, furious at the order from his master that he wasn't allowed to harm her.
Bellatrix shrugged and preceded him into the room, waiting till he sat down before starting the lesson.
"Liquid to liquid transfiguration can be simple or complex, depending on what substances you're using" she began. Raiden listened with half an ear, he'd already read this chapter in the textbook for sixth year Transfiguration. "For example, you can turn pumpkin juice into rum, or water into wine. Any liquid can be changed into another liquid if you have the right focus. Why don't you try on this glass of water? Turn it into pumpkin juice."
Raiden raised a hand and flicked it at the glass. He didn't bother to say the spell; he'd practiced it enough at Malfoy Manor that he didn't need to say it. It was one of the spells that he'd mastered both wandlessly and silently. Instantly, the water changed into thick pumpkin juice and Raiden promptly drank it, re-hydrating himself after the duel with Draco. Bellatrix looked annoyed that he'd got to it before she had but grudgingly said "Well done. Try changing the glass of water into wine."
Raiden was very bored. He did the spell and watched as she drank the results. He smirked when Bellatrix choked. "Not to your liking Professor" he sneered. Bellatrix drank several glasses of water before replying.
"That was vinegar you evil little snot!"
Raiden shrugged. "Sorry, my water to wine spell needs work apparently. Hey what are you doing?"
Apparently his flippant remark had pushed Bellatrix past the point of sanity because she turned on him in a fury. Spells flew out of her wand so fast that Raiden couldn't dodge or shield against them all. In a short space of time he found himself bound to his chair, his hands in front of him and in his lap, his feet tied to the chair legs. He was gagged so he couldn't yell for help, at least not physically. He certainly did so mentally as Bellatrix advanced on him, certain that she had her annoying little enemy at her mercy at last.
MASTER HELP! THE INSANE BITCH IS GOING TO KILL ME! Raiden yelled over the bond, seeing a green glow start to emanate from the tip of Bellatrix's wand as she spoke "Avada.."
She didn't get any further than that as Raiden wrenched his hands upwards so his fingers were pointing directly at his tormentor. All of his pent up anger, hatred and rage surged within him, needing an outlet. It all flowed out of his fingers, in a burst of pure magic.
Bellatrix screamed as the magic, which was acting in the same way as electricity would, enveloped her and overloaded her nervous system. She screamed, jerked and twitched as though she were trying to dance while being horizontal. Magic kept pouring out of Raiden's fingertips as his emotions slowly calmed down. When the emotional storm had passed, so did the magical one. At the end of it all, Raiden looked up, exhausted, to see Voldemort standing in the doorway, looking at the smoking corpse in shocked, slightly sickened horror. Finally he turned to Raiden and said, "I understand that it was an extreme situation but please don't do that again. It's not very good for a Dark Lord to fry his followers in such a manner."
Raiden stared at Voldemort in disbelief and snapped, "She was going to kill me or did you not get my message?"
His master's eyes narrowed as Voldemort hissed back, "Yes I did, I almost fell off my throne in front of the rest of the Inner Circle thanks to you! I'm not going to punish you for this precisely because of what Bellatrix was going to do!"
Softening his tone slightly, Voldemort added, "I meant it when I said that no one hurts you and gets away with it. If you hadn't killed her then I would have. I was just about to use the Killing Curse myself when you electrocuted her. Did you manage to learn anything at all in your sessions with her?"
Raiden snorted. "No. Everything she taught me was stuff I could have learnt in Transfiguration this year at Hogwarts, plus the self study at home in Malfoy Manor. Those Parseltongue lessons are good though, I was cursing Draco in Parseltongue in our duel today. The sword charms worked too."
Voldemort nodded as Raiden freed himself from the ropes and stood up, flexing his muscles to ease the small cramps that had set in. Looking to his master expectantly he saw a small frown on his face.
"What's wrong? I'm sorry I killed her, you know I don't like killing, but it was self defence."
Voldemort shook his head. "Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking of a report that Rabastan brought me. Apparently Dumbledore is looking for my Horcruxes."
Raiden looked puzzled. "Your what?" he asked.
Voldemort smirked. "You remember when I told you that I survived the Killing Curse because of certain precautions?" he said. Seeing Raiden's nod he continued, "Those protections were the Horcruxes. Since your lessons with Bellatrix have seemingly been permanently cancelled, you can have four lessons with me per week instead of three. Let's go."
Raiden followed Voldemort to his study, picking up his Lord of the Rings book along the way. Hermione had given the trilogy to him as a birthday gift and it was very interesting. Tolkein had some interesting ideas on magic and the One Ring intrigued Raiden a lot.
When they were seated, Voldemort began talking. "How much do you know about Horcruxes?" he asked.
Raiden frowned. "I don't know anything about them Master, what are they exactly?"
Voldemort smirked, this was the answer he'd been expecting. "Horcruxes are vessels which hold a piece of your soul," he began. "They are created using the Darkest of Dark magic rituals, and the information on how to make them has never, at least to my knowledge been written down. In order to create a Horcrux, you have to commit a murder. This tears your soul apart, and then you use a ritual to put one of the pieces into the object you wish to use as the Horcrux. The more times you murder, the more times your soul is split, however the maximum number of pieces your soul can split into is seven. You can only have a maximum number of six Horcruxes as one piece of your soul remains in your body at all times. When I met you, that spirit form of myself was the one piece of my soul that had remained in my body. I had six Horcruxes hidden in various places round Britain and Scotland. I now have five as I reabsorbed one piece of my soul back in your second year."
Raiden looked puzzled until he remembered the Chamber of Secrets. "The diary" he said quietly, seeing Voldemort's nod of acknowledgement. "So what are the others?" he asked.
Voldemort shrugged. "There is a locket which is rumored to have once belonged to Slytherin himself. That is back in my possession now; Sirius found it when cleaning out his attic and gave it back to me. There is a ring which belonged to my mother's family, the Gaunt family. They were the last of Slytherin's descendants. Helga Hufflepuff's cup which is hidden in plain sight at Hogwarts itself. Nagini is one, as well. That is why I keep her close to me. There is also Rowena Ravenclaw's journal. The magic in the book prevents it being destroyed, and it is a priceless artifact so it will be kept preserved."
Raiden was thinking this over. "The diary, the ring, the locket, the cup, the journal, Nagini and the last part is in you right." Voldemort nodded and corrected him. "The diary is now not a Horcrux remember, but the rest are right."
Raiden shrugged. "So, you've got the locket, the cup is at Hogwarts, brilliant placement by the way, Dumbledork will never look for it there, Nagini is also with you. Where is Ravenclaw's journal?"
Voldemort smirked. "In the Ministry Museum of course." Raiden's eyes bugged out as he thought of all the witches and wizards that were helping to guard a piece of his master's soul.
"Hehehehehehehehe, oh that's good Master, that's priceless. The Wizarding world is practically keeping you alive, oh the irony," he dissolved into laughter before sobering.
"So as long as the Horcruxes survive, you survive right?" he asked. Voldemort nodded, curious as to what his apprentice was thinking. Raiden picked up Fellowship of the Ring and paged through it. He read a passage once, then twice, before shutting the book and thinking some more. Finally he laughed.
"What is it?" Voldemort questioned.
Raiden smirked. "Have you ever read Lord of the Rings Master?" Voldemort shook his head. "You should. Good series, the author's views on magic are amusing. The wizards are very powerful. However, it's Sauron you'd be interested in. He's the Dark Lord in the story."
"Why would I be interested in him?" Voldemort asked, growing somewhat annoyed as Raiden collapsed in laughter over something he hadn't explained yet. Finally, when he sobered up, Raiden said, "It's just that in the story, Sauron creates ninteen Rings of Power, and then creates one more master ring, the One Ring to rule all other rings. He puts his power, his will to dominate all life and his evil into the Ring. As long as the Ring survives, Sauron survives. I was laughing because of the parallel between that and your situation."
"What parallel?" came the annoyed question, although Voldemort was starting to have an inkling of where this was going.
Raiden snorted with laughter again before replying, "This parallel. As long as the One Ring survived, Sauron survived. As long as your Horcruxes survive, you survive. The One Ring was Sauron's Horcrux."
Voldemort thought about it and nodded slowly. He then asked, "What happened to the Ring?"
Raiden shrugged. "It could only be destroyed in the place where it was made, a huge volcano in Sauron's territory. The people of Middle Earth formed a Fellowship and took the Ring towards Mordor, which is Sauron's territory. Apparently two of them got through and dropped it into the lava pit."
Voldemort winced. "And when that happened it was goodbye Sauron" he muttered.
Raiden nodded before saying cheerfully, "You'd better keep a good eye on your other Horcruxes Master because if Dumbledore's read Lord of the Rings then he might well gather up your precious soul pieces and drop them in a volcano. I hear there's a nice hot one in New Zealand."
Raiden ducked several curses and hexes as he ran out the door. He'd let his master calm down before returning for his lessons on how to be a successful Dark Lord. He wandered down the corridor humming the Imperial March. He wanted to watch Revenge of the Sith before dinner.
Author Note
I know that the Star Wars prequels did not start coming out until 1999 and I know that RotS did not come out until 2005. I was at the premiere in my country, dressed as a Jedi if you want to know. I'm just playing with the release dates a little, it makes sense that Voldemort would want to examine how Palpatine manipulated his way into running an entire galaxy, and then steal his ideas for his own use. No flames over this minor plot point please. I wonder who else picked up on the little parallel between the Horcruxes and the One Ring in Lord of the Rings. I didn't until I was watching LotR the other weekend and suddenly thought of that bit. It would be interesting whether it was intentional on J K Rowling's part or not. Someone should ask her.
May the Force be with you
Padawan Lynne