Chapter XI
A Visit from the Malfoy's
The holiday season seemed to come at a much slower pace as Harry fought with his own nightmares on each night following his meeting with Dumbledore. He kept forcing himself to awaken each night, even when the dreams were pleasant, in fear that Riddle's face would appear at any point.
When the holiday week finally arrived, he gleefully jogged to the Hogwart's Express, ready to get away from Hogwarts for a short while. He sat alone in one of the compartments, waiting for London to draw closer. While sitting on the train, gazing out of the window, the compartment door opened, revealing James on the opposite end.
"Hey son," Harry said in surprise. "I thought you would want to sit with you friends rather than your dear old dad."
"Well, I wanted to see you before we reached London," James replied.
"Everything okay?" Harry asked in concern.
"Well, I'm wondering how you're doing?" He said, equally worried.
Harry smiled at this question. "James you have nothing to worry about. I'm doing a lot better. I'm actually able to get a little bit of sleep now. I won't lie though, I was glad to end this term and finally be able to see you mom."
"Are you sure you're okay?" James asked.
"I'm quite sure James," Harry responded. "You don't need to worry about me, I'm doing fine." He smiled at James, who smiled back. "Now, let's have a great holiday. I know your mom is looking forward to seeing all of us."
James gave one last smile and left the compartment to rejoin his class. Within the hour, London finally came into view. The station platform was now visible, leading Harry to quickly look for Ginny, who came into view at the very front, standing alongside Ron and Hermione.
He ran off the train when it came to a complete stop and before the students could start filing out. He ran out of the train, not even feeling the steps coming down and wrapped his arms around Ginny, who also wrapped her arms around him.
She laughed. "I'm assuming you missed me."
"Every hour on the hour," he replied as he pulled her closer for a kiss.
Ron groaned at this. "Okay, okay," he said. "There are children around you two."
"Children or an overly protective older brother her acts like a child," Hermione said with a chuckle.
"Hey, you love this overgrown child," Ron said with a smile.
"Everyday," Hermione said as she kissed him gently on the lips.
They all greeted their children as they came off the train and walked out of the station together.
"Hey Harry," Ron called out. "If you guys aren't too tired, why don't you come to mom and dad's place for dinner. We're all invited, because they felt like having a bit of an early Christmas dinner."
Harry looked at Ginny, who gave an excited look at this, obviously hoping that Harry wanted to.
"Would love to," Harry said joyfully. With that, they all jumped into their vehicles and they all followed each other the whole way there. The Weasley family home had not changed much since their youth, with exception of Ron and their children's rooms being converted to muggle collectable rooms for their father, Arthur Weasley. Arthur had been collecting muggle artifacts for years and had gotten to the point where all additional rooms, aside from his and Molly's room, were filled with artifacts.
When they pulled up to the house, several voices could be heard from the outside, indicated that there were more than just them as guest. They walked up the front door, which Ron opened for them all. With the door open, the muffled noise they had heard became more vocal. Two distinct voices stood out to Harry as he walked in as his suspicions became confirmed when he saw Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's parents, standing in the kitchen with Molly Weasley.
Harry still felt a little jolt when he saw either of them as they were enemies for nearly all of his youth. Once followers of Tom Riddle, Lucius and Narcissa became distant from the wizarding world after the fall of Riddle, and switched sides during the latter half of the battle, due to the protection of their son, viewing their son as far more important than Riddle.
The relationship between the Weasley's and Malfoy's was a long, painful amends, but all were on speaking terms, with Molly and Narcissa becoming close friends over the last decade. Both priding themselves as mother's who raised bright children. Arthur and Lucius, while not quite as close as Molly and Narcissa, were on much better speaking terms than they once were and both currently enjoyed happy retirements.
Lucius walked up to Harry once he entered and extended his hand. "Good evening Harry," Harry shook his hand. "Or should I say Professor Potter."
"Harry is fine Mr. Malfoy," Harry said with a laugh.
"Speaking of Professors," Molly interjected. "Draco is on his way as well."
"Yes, we wanted to get you all together, to congratulate you both on your positions at Hogwarts," Narcissa added. "So this was more of a surprise dinner, that Ron kind of brought you in a little early on."
Ron turned pink, as his mother looked a little more angered at him. "I didn't know how to stall," Ron added, as Hermione laughed silently.
"Clearly," Molly said. "Why is it, you can't drive normal on most days Ron, and yet on the day that we need you to stall, you go without a problem?"
"Bad luck I guess," Ron replied, embarrassed.
Molly than gave a laugh as well, and walked up to them hall and gave them a hug and kiss each. "We'll wait for Draco to get here and than we'll eat."
"That's fine Molly, Arthur and I needed to speak with Harry anyways," Lucius added.
While not opposed, Harry couldn't hide his curiosity as Lucius led Harry into the living room, where Authur was also sitting.
Arthur stood up and also shook Harry's hand. "Hello Harry, how are you feeling?"
"Fine," Harry said, with caution though as both Arthur and Lucius carried worried expressions.
They all sat down before Lucius and Arthur proceeded with the conversation.
"I talked to Draco a couple weeks ago," Lucius started. "He said a threatening message was left about the entrance way of the Slytherin House." Harry nodded at this. "We were just worried about your well-being and how you were taking it."
Harry looked at them both. He wanted to just lie and say that he was fine to get the conversation over with, but their worried expressions prevented him from doing so, knowing that it would just create more questions. He knew he couldn't tell them everything about himself but figured a little information and questioning of his own wouldn't hurt.
"I just don't know how to really take it, it just seems like a little too much sometimes," he replied. "What can it be a sign of?"
"Unfortunately Harry," Arthur responded. "Signs of any sort of dark magic or threat is not good, and with you being at Hogwarts, it makes any sort of dark wizard or dark magic practicing wizard more interested in revealing themselves. After all, you are very much the symbol of hope for the wizarding world, then and now."
"If there was a dark wizard out there, I would like to think we would have captured them," Harry said. "There's no one that could have concealed themselves as good as Voldemort."
"Very true, which is why Narcissa and I are here today," Lucius added.
Harry stared with a little more curiosity at Lucius, who leaned in to appear to want to whisper, as to not be heart. He gave a quick nod to Arthur, who nodded back and got up to leave the room. This made Harry even more concerned.
"Now, Dumbledore nor Severus would like me telling you this, but they have conversed with me over your situation," Lucius said.
"Why?" Harry asked, not trying to be offensive, but it seemed more than strange that Lucius was conversed with and he wasn't told.
"They came to me because of my connections with the Dark Lord during the war, questioned me on what other information I could offer them that might be useful," Lucius replied. "And that's when they learned of the possible spell that might be bound on you."
"How do you know about it?" Harry asked, his interest piqued. "Especially if it's unknown? Tom didn't just confide in anybody."
Lucius sat back, a great deal of embarrassment, and what appeared to be shame, came across his face. "Because I told him about it years ago," he said, putting his head down.
Harry closed his eyes and shook his head. This definitely came as a surprise. "How?" Was the only question he could muster.
Lucius took a little time to collect himself and continued. "When I was a boy, my father once told be a story about a supposed mythical wizard named, Rupert Slayer, a wizard who survived transferring his mind into younger wizards when he was close to death. According to the story, his mind lived for three hundred years, taking over the minds of young wizards, both male and female. The story ends with an unknown wizard finding out his secret and killing him in his sleep before he could utter the spell again, never telling a soul about his discovery, therefore the spell was never documented."
"I've never heard of a Rupert Slayer before," Harry said.
"I think the name was made up by my father in all honesty," Lucius said. "But it could be possible that such a name may have not been discovered if the wizard was indeed transferring his mind into other known wizards."
"Why did you tell Voldemort that?" Harry asked.
"He overheard us talking one day, I had brought up the story with Goyle. He was surprisingly intrigued and wanted to hear the rest of it."
Harry could understand why such a story would be appealing to Riddle. Riddle's mission in life was not only rule the wizarding world but to live forever. A mind transferring spell would definitely catch his interest.
"Excuse me boys." Harry's train of thought was broken by Molly. "But Draco is here, and we're ready to eat."
"Okay, Molly," Lucius replied.
Harry stood up, but as he did, the world around him began to spin. His body felt as though it was aparating against his will and felt as though he were going to be sick. The home around him began to fade away slowly, as the silouette figure of a man began to form. As he materialized, Harry began to fall further. The slowly forming image of Tom Riddle appeared before him as he fell to the ground and his world turned to black.
