Previously, on Mission: Redemption
As soon as Severus left and the door closed, ropes shot out of the chair Pollux was sitting in and tied him to it. He panicked, but could do nothing to free himself from the chair. His wand was in his pocket, but he couldn't reach it. He looked up to see Dumbledore, who had a grave expression, and had his wand pointed straight at Pollux.
"Is there anything you wish to tell me, before I kill you, TOM RIDDLE?"
As Dumbledore circled around the desk with his wand trained on Pollux, Pollux fought hard to keep the panic down and keep a level expression. He wondered if he should play innocent, but decided he'd blown that approach by giving a chagrined expression when the chair locked and then carefully schooling his expressions to give away nothing. Any ordinary kid would be visibly panicking by now.
He huffed, and asked "How did you know?"
The Headmaster seemed surprised that Pollux did not try to deny everything. "The Sorting Hat, of course. There's little you can hide from a magical artifact that can read the deepest and most hidden parts of who you are."
Pollux shook his head ruefully "Figures. That blasted rag fed me a story of how the Founders had placed a charm on it to shut it up, and I bought it."
"Oh, but the Founders did place a charm on it to keep the life of a student prior to Hogwarts, a secret." Dumbledore informed him cheerfully, "But it has no compulsion to keep the life of any student after Hogwarts a secret. Something that I've found most convenient recently."
What he didn't say was that this loophole was discovered a mere hundred years after the death of the last founder to die (Helga Hufflepuff), and had been passed as a secret from Headmaster to Headmaster - and the occasional Headmistress. Albus may have been brilliant, but he was hardly the first brilliant wizard to head Hogwarts.
The hat naturally didn't blab about every wizard masquerading as children, possessing children, reincarnations, time-travellers, and other such anomalies the moment it sat on somebody's head. It revealed such information later to the Headmaster, privately, and only on request. That meant that at some point of time Albus had to have told the Hat to watch out for Tom Riddle in any form. He was actually glad he'd done it in 1981 instead of waiting till the year Harry Potter came to school. He'd only done it because of his suspicions - he fervently hoped they were not true, but he did have the suspicions - of the foul magic in little Harry's scar. Never had he imagined that some other student would turn out to be hiding the Dark Lord - especially the near squib kid of Bellatrix! But that did make a certain kind of sense if he thought about it.
Albus indicated none of this to his current guest, however.
He sat on the desk, resting one leg on the handle of the chair Pollux was sitting on. His wand was still pointed at Pollux.
"I got the who, I'll figure out the how soon enough. What I don't get, is the why. Why come here Tom? Why now? Why take the risk of coming here at all?"
Pollux suddenly realized that Dumbledore thought he was the spirit of Voldemort having possessed Pollux Black since childhood. He himself suspected that about Castor, but evidently Castor had nothing in his head that the Sorting Hat would catch. This was good, though - all he had to do was tell Dumbledore that the Voldemort he was looking for was probably haunting the forests of Albania.
"I'm not the one you think I am," he started "the mmmmpgh!"
He blinked. Huh. A tongue tying curse. Looks like he wasn't going to tell anything to Dumbledore.
"The what?" inquired Dumbledore.
"I can't say it!" said a worried Pollux.
"Maybe I can help you with that..." said Dumbledore, as he brought his wand closer to Pollux's neck.
(The previous day)
It was almost a week after he had met with Bellatrix that Albus was able to arrange for the Black's attorney, Mr Graves, to visit Sirius Black in Azkaban. He had a twenty minute meeting (the details of which were confidential from Albus, of course), and at the end of it Sirius seemed to have insisted - much against the advice of his solicitor - on giving witness via Veritaserum. Sirius, it seemed, believed that the truth shall set him free.
After his meeting with Graves ended Albus sat down in worry. Was Sirius really innocent? Or simply too insane to care? Sirius wanted something to be public knowledge, that was the only conclusion he could draw, but what?
It was no secret that he considered Sirius one of his greatest failures.
He had been so overjoyed when a scion of the Black family turned out to be in Gryffindor, and friends with not only the son of Charlus, but also a werewolf. He had even overlooked the childish pranks of the "Marauders" as they called themselves. But occasionally Sirius Black would show hints of such darkness that Albus would start questioning himself if it was all worth it. Like that time Sirius almost got both Severus and Remus killed. He - Albus, that is - had gotten rid of Severus, who had wanted all of the Marauders put in Azkaban, with difficulty... but then he'd sat down with Sirius and had a talk with him for almost two hours. At the end of it, even Sirius's pureblood facade had broken down and he was in unashamed tears of remorse. Things like that had given Albus hope for Sirius.
It had been James Potter who had saved Severus - and hence even Remus and Sirius - that day, and Albus thought it would be James who would be the saviour of Sirius. For as long as James stayed on the path of light, Sirius would follow him there as well. And, because of Lily Evans, James was sure to stay on the path of the light.
In the end it was Severus who had surprised him. For him to have chosen his current path when he was in the depths to which he had fallen - even Albus found that unfathomable. It was one thing to talk about hard choices, it was entirely another to actually make those choices when your own hide was involved. For all his talk of the power of love, Albus had never believed the power of Lily's love would ever redeem Severus.
He had wondered then if he shouldn't have bothered with Sirius at all and paid more attention to Severus.
Now, he was wondering if Sirius was his failure - or had he failed Sirius?
(Now)
"Fascinating. It seems you are under a conditional Langlock curse, but what is more interesting is that it is part of your magic. As far as I can make out, you were born with this curse."
"Is that's what making me weak in magic?" asked Pollux despite himself.
"No, I'm pretty sure that's because... well, let's just say you can call yourself a sandwich." answered Dumbledore.
"What..." Pollux was confused.
"Alas, it would seem muggle humour is lost on the wizard-raised. Now, it seems to me somebody has taken great pains to prevent you from talking" concluded Dumbledore after finishing his examination.
"So what now, old man" asked Pollux.
"Why don't we find out what you can talk about" suggested Dumbledore cheerfully.
(The previous day)
After Graves had left, Albus had made a trip of his own - unauthorized - to Sirius's cell, before the guards came to collect him. What he had learned from Sirius in those ten minutes had him shaken.
Sirius was, or at least believed himself to be, innocent.
Albus maintained a firm facade till he returned to Hogwarts. There, once in his office, the full extent of his failure came crashing onto him and he collapsed in sobs.
(Now)
"So, you are from a future timeline. And you can't tell me anthing about what is happening right now, but you can tell me things from the far future." Dumbledore concluded.
"So it would seem"
"And this curse of yours also seems to make you resistant to legilimency in that particular area - not to disparage your occlumency skills, of course, they are formidable."
But not good enough to keep Dumbledore out, Pollux could read between the lines.
"Well then there's only one thing to do. You can confirm what I already know as true about the Voldemort of this timeline."
"Wait, you believe me?" asked Pollux surprised. "What if this is a trap by Voldemort?" He regretted his outburst immediately. If this was a trap by Voldemort, he should have kept his mouth shut.
But Dumbledore didn't seem to mind "If it's a trap, it's a trap." which probably meant he had other backup plans in case of traps "we must not let ourselves lose our faith over fear. To do so would be to undermine everything we are fighting for.
"So, yes, Pollux. I do believe you. I believe you showed true remorse after your death, and I believe you redeemed yourself by putting your own soul together."
"Funny, your future counterpart seemed to think I needed to do more for my redemption. That's why he sent me back!" sneered Pollux.
At that Dumbledore gaveone of his insufferable mysterious smiles "Ah my boy. But are you sure you were sent back for YOUR redemption?"
(Yesterday)
Albus's outburst didn't last long. One did not become Supreme Mugwump without being able to compose oneself in times of distress.
Now was not the time to cry. Now was the time to act, to do something to get Sirius out.
The question was... how?
He didn't have the political capital to bring about Sirius's trial. Lucius had the minister's ears, and even though the minister turned to Albus for advice, it was to Lucius that he turned to counsel. Albus had underestimated Lucius Malfoy over the years, as most old teachers are wont to do to their former students, and he was now paying the price for that.
He wouldn't hesitate to expend his entire political capital to free Sirius, but he had to be realistic. To do so, now, he would expend all of his political capital and not get Sirius out.
But what if...
What if the demand for Sirius's trial came from the other side?
(Now)
"So you, that is the present Voldemort, took steps to ensure his immortality."
"Yes" replied Pollux.
"And the steps he took was the Amulet of Ra."
Pollux choked at that.
"Horcruxes?" continued Dumbledore.
To his surprise Pollux choked on that as well.
Dumbledore would have continued naming means of immortality (a few of these even Pollux did not know!) but Pollux interrupted, "Headmaster... the magic seems to know you are guessing. I can only confirm what you KNOW."
"Hmm... that's vexing."
Dumbledore paced around the room, thinking while Pollux watched nervously.
"Well my boy" he finally said "It looks like I need to know more before I can get anything confirmed from you. I'm afraid our interview must draw to a close at this.
"OBLIVIATE!"
Pollux was still feeling dizzy when he heard Dumbledore's voice "And so my boy, you can tell your mother I did my best for Sirius, but sadly, it was not enough. Oh, and rumours that I am deliberately holding back Sirius's trial because of the guardianship of Harry Potter is patently false. Good day, my boy."
Author's note:Here's an approximate timeline for my story so far:
- Early 1979: Bellatrix discovers she is pregnant. She fakes her death and disappears into the muggle world.
- July 1979: Castor and Pollux are born
- (Possibly) April 1980: Sybill Trelawney makes a prophecy regarding the vanquishment of the Dark Lord
- July 1980: Harry (and Neville) are born. Some time later both the Potters and Longbottoms go into hiding.
- October 1981: Voldemort is vanquished for the first time. Harry becomes 'boy-who-lived'.
- December 1981: Bellatrix returns to Andromeda.
- Early 1982: Barty Crouch Jr. is revealed to be a Death Eater. Bartemius Crouch Sr. resigns and is replaced by Amelia Bones.
- Early 1982: Bellatrix surrenders herself to the Aurors
- December 1982: Bellatrix is sentenced to five years in Azkaban (mainly due to good lawyers and scanty evidence)
- 1983: Tom Riddle awakes as Pollux Black
- 1985: Pollux learns about one half of his parentage
- 25 December 1987: Bellatrix is released
- 24/25 August 1990: Bellatrix meets Dumbledore
- 31 August 1990: Dumbledore visits Sirius in Azkaban
- 1 September 1990: The Black twins start Hogwarts.