Chapter 7: Tornado of Souls

Harry watched as Ogden ran from Morfin and Marvolo Gaunt and almost crashed into the two horse riders. There was laughter, shouting, and crying. The scene descended into total chaos, and Harry felt Dumbledore grab his shoulder and pull him out of the scene.

"That was… strange" Harry said as he sat back down in front of Dumbledore's empty desk. The desk was almost as bare as it had been last week. The only addition was that now there was a small metal nail next to the ashtray.

"Yes very strange" Dumbledore agreed "though also very important. Merope Gaunt is Tom Riddle's mother."

"That thing has a mother?" Harry asked in disgust, while reaching for the nail so that he would have something to fiddle with.

"Of course he does – don't touch that!"

"Sorry" Harry gently placed the nail back in place and put his hands on his lap.

"That's fine" he continued "and yes, you did just see Lord Voldemort's mother. And his father too. On the horse."

"How did those two end up together?" Harry asked "And what is with the nail and ashtray anyway? I mean, I've never seen you smoke. What happened to the rest of the stuff?"

"The ashtray is unimportant" Dumbledore said as he levitated it to a nearby shelf "and most of my stuff was destroyed when I had to flee the office. As for the nail it is an Imperio Pin; a relatively new form of dark magic that uses the Imperious Curse to permanently brainwash someone. Terrible device. Barty Crouch was trying to get this one ready to use on his own son."

"Brainwash? But Snape said – "

"It's not important right now. I believe that Lord Voldemort may be thinking of using them. I'll tell you if I find out more. For now let's concentrate on Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Senior."

"I don't see why he would go for her over his other lady" Harry said "unless he felt really sorry for her I guess."

"I can make a good guess of what happened" Dumbledore said "You see, Morfin and Marvolo were both arrested after the assault on Ogden. While they were away, Merope's magical abilities blossomed. She then went ahead and made Riddle Senior fall for her with magic. I suspect a powerful love potion would have done it. She probably slipped it into a glass of water and gave it to him while he rode past. However it happened, they eloped soon afterwards."

"Voldermort's mother died giving birth to him" Harry said "and in the graveyard he said he'd killed his father."

"Yes that's right. Three months after their shock marriage, Riddle left poor Merope. I guess she'd stopped giving him the potion, thinking that he'd love her on his own, or stay because of the child. Either way he didn't; she died giving birth to Tom Riddle Junior nine months later in a muggle orphanage. All alone."

"Couldn't she have stopped herself from dying?" Harry said "I mean she was a witch."

"Tom Riddle asked me the same question many years ago. I guess there is no easy answer really. More powerful witches have died giving birth. And I'm pretty sure that after being rejected like that, poor Merope's magic would have been stunted again."

"I suppose so" Harry said, remembering that Theo's mother had died giving birth as well "You know, it seems so strange. All the really bigoted pureblood families I've come across seem to be quiet wealthy. How could the Gaunt's fall so far? Especially since they're direct descendants of Slytherin himself."

"The Gaunt's fall was slow" Dumbledore explained "generations of inbreeding to keep the line pure, as well as bad investments along the way. It's happened many times to many families. The last heir of the once powerful Orre family lived in squalor with a jaw too lopsided to chew food properly. The Nott's lost their entire fortune in less than five years, the Delacroix's were so desperate to keep the line pure that for three generations brother married sister. Bad things happen more than the Pureblood community would care to admit.

"I see. Hagrid said once that everyone has some muggle blood in them."

"I'd say that's true. It probably holds true the other way too. Though it's pretty hard to do any research on the matter."

"I'd imagine it would be."

They sat in silence for a while. There was nothing nearby for Harry to fiddle with, so he just twiddled his thumbs. Dumbledore had said that knowing about Voldemort's life and raise to power would be necessary to defeat him, but so far Harry couldn't see anything really useful about the session. Though he had to admit that it was quiet interesting.

"How has your first week back been Harry?" Dumbledore asked, disturbing the silence with his casual question.

"Very busy" Harry said "lots of homework. And studying. I have no idea how I'll keep above Exceeding Expectations in Potions for the next two years."

"How is Professor Zabini's Study Group?" The Headmaster asked "That helping any?"

"Yah I think so. Professor Zabini is a great teacher."

"I know. After she retired from the glamorous life of professional duelling and being an Auror, she became one of the best tutors in the country. I've been trying to get her to come teach for years, but her husband wouldn't have it. You'd only suggest his wife taking a supposedly cured job if your had a death wish."

"So why did he let her now?"

"Because her son and Mr. Nott kept telling her how bad it was all last year with Umbridge. When she found that I couldn't get a teacher this year, she decided to take the job. The one condition being that I met her Husband. Mr. Zabini managed to come up with quite a long list of bad things he would do to me if I let his wife come to any harm."

"That must have been strange" Harry tried to imagine what a middle-aged muggle could possibly do to harm one of the greatest Wizards of modern times.

"Quite scary actually" Dumbledore said "Luigi Zabini can be a pretty intimidating man if he thinks his family is at risk."

"That seems to be a Zabini quality."

"Indeed it does. So, have you learnt about the Deschamps siblings yet?"

"Blaise and Camille Deschamps; muggle-born siblings who turned deadly wizarding duals into a type of sport, and defeated a Dark Wizard from their era; we learnt about them on Thursday."

"Not straight away? They were Professor Zabini's childhood idols."

"I could guess; after all she named her kids after them."

"Yes. I haven't had a mother in my staff for decades. This should be an interesting year."

They fell into silence again. This time it was a more comfortable silence. However after a while Harry became convinced that the next words out of Dumbledore's mouth would be asking about the session with Miss Io. He dreaded the thought of having to have a conversation anything like that again.

Fortunately, Dumbledore said nothing about Miss Io, and instead wished him a good night. Harry left the office gratefully; it had actually been an interesting and mostly pleasant session.

:sometime that weekend:

"Checkmate!" Blaise Zabini said as his Queen moved into alignment with Ron's king. Ron looked over the board, desperate for an escape, but Zabini had boxed his king in with his rooks.

"Well, I guess you have actually beaten me Zabini" Ron said "I suppose you are more than just a pretty face. Best out of three?"

"Sure" Zabini said, grabbing his white pieces and putting them back in their starting positions. The pieces protested being manhandled, but after a few turns of speaking commands to them, Zabini always fell back into the habit of moving them by hand. It was an infuriating habit, but maybe it was common amongst muggle chess players.

"Hullo there, how are the games going?" Hermione said. She and Nott had been in another part of the library working on their Healing assignment. Now it seemed that the two of them and decided to investigate Ron and Zabini's chess game.

"I won the first game" Zabini said "but I must admit that Weasley here has a bit more logic than I've given him credit for. He also said I have a pretty face."

"Oi I didn't say it like that!"

"Oh don't be ashamed Ron" Hermione teased "didn't you say the other night that Zabini was the sexiest person in the world?"

"I was talking about the Professor!" Ron said, wondering how Hermione could have misunderstood him. Hermione may not be the stunning beauty that Professor Zabini was, but she was still one of the last girls in the world that Ron wanted thinking he was gay.

"Damnit can't you just treat my mother like the middle-aged mother-of-two teacher that she is?" Zabini said.

"Oh just get on with the next game" Hermione said, with Nott nodding his agreement.

The two of them sat down and watched the game, which Ron managed to win rather quickly. Just as they were about to play the tie-breaking third game, Hermione and Nott left. Hermione explained that the tension was getting a bit intense and that they needed to practice their duelling. Ron and Zabini waved to them as they left and then got straight into the next game.

It didn't bother Ron at all that Hermione was alone with Nott; to Ron, it just meant that she wasn't alone with Zabini. Ever since he had found out that she was friends with those damn Slytherins, Ron had always been weary of Blaise Zabini; the guy was a genius manipulator and for some reason all the girls went crazy for him.

He had to admit that he was glad Nott was around. Nott was the ultimate third wheel; always around so that Zabini and Hermione wouldn't get too close, and too much of a wack-job to be a threat himself.

Wait a minute Ron thought did I just think of Nott and Zabini as threats? Threats to what?

"So Weasley, are we going to play or are you going to just stare at my pretty face all night?"

"You are so going down Zabini!"

:Later:

After a first week full of surprises, life seemed to fall into a routine quickly enough for Hermione. She soon got used to Blaise's mother being a teacher, and Ron's irrational longing for her. She was also glad that Harry and Ron had been able to make it into Potions with her; even though they had to share a textbook and kept complaining about it.

And she even managed to accept that The Powers That Be had deemed it wise to give Blaise a private room in a secluded part of the school filled with dangerous objects and guarded by a poster of a delusional rock star. He had taken her and Theo to The Workshop as soon as he was done renovating. The room appeared to be a cross between a workshop and a clubhouse; complete with beanbags and even a hammock. On Blaise's desk were two model cars; a Ford Model-T and a Ford A-Model. The A-Model was actually his portkey to the Hospital Wing.

Blaise's cat Leia gave birth to her kittens during their first weekend. He smuggled one of the newborns into the library to show her on Tuesday, and she had to admit, the little fluffball did look a lot like Crookshanks.

Classes were also different; much more challenging than ever before. Professor Zabini's theory lessons on non-verbal spells were just as interesting as her practical ones, and to keep them on their toes, after each lessons she pulled two random names out of the hat, and a dual was started. So far neither Hermione nor Theo had been called up to dual, but she knew that when it did happen, Professor Zabini would be impressed. The practice sessions they had been having were really paying off.

Theo was the biggest surprise so far though. For over a year things had been awkward between them, but now he had managed to overcome the barrier, and Hermione couldn't have been happier. She had been so shocked to find herself talking with him on Monday, but she soon became accustomed to his presence. They shared a lot of classes, and talked about a variety of things that she would never have spoken about with Harry, Ron, or Blaise.

As she worked with Blaise and Theo on their numerology chart during the Friday Arithmacy lesson that marked the last hour before their weekend, she thought about how good it was to no longer feel awkward around Theo. Now their relationship was even better than it was back when they first met during their third year.

She had noticed him earlier than that of course; he sat with "that show-off Blaise Zabini" in the seats near hers in Arithmacy. She had never really given him that much thought though. Until one day, she got into some sort of silly fight with Ron and Harry. Well, it wasn't actually that very same day since they had both stopped talking to her during the Christmas holidays, but that fight was the reason why she met Theo at all.

The first day back, everyone seemed to notice that there was something wrong with the Golden Trio. Harry and Ron weren't talking to her, and she was mostly alone doing research for Buckbeak's appeal. By the afternoon, she was sick of people asking what had happened, and was emotionally on edge. She happened to overhear Ron say something really bad about her, and that set her off. She ran until she found a secluded corridor on the fourth floor and burst into tears.

She had been so upset that she hadn't even noticed Theo and Blaise approach her. The first she noticed was when Theo walked up to her with his wand out. For a brief second she cursed her luck; to be found in that sort of condition by two Slytherins. However Theo simply made a green and silver handkerchief come out of his wand.

"Here" he had said, handing it to her "this corridor is a shortcut between the Slytherin Common Room and Arithmacy, so we better get you fixed up before Malfoy and Greengrass get here."

Hermione had been so shocked that someone from Slytherin was being nice to her, while Blaise had been shocked that Theo had gone up to someone he barely knew and spoken to her. And it was more than the usual two or three words that strangers usually got from his quiet friend.

"Thank you" Hermione said as she took the handkerchief and tried to dry her eyes.

"It's alright. What's wrong anyway? Can we help?"

"Not unless you can get me a rat or a Firebolt."

"I can do the rat" Blaise said "but I think for now I'll go and annoy Malfoy for you."

"Thank you Zabini" She replied as he left, glad that she wouldn't have to let Malfoy see her cry.

"Did you have a fight with your friends?" Theo had said.

"Yah, they haven't been speaking to me since Christmas. And now everyone keeps asking me what happened. I hate it!"

"I won't ask anymore then if that helps."

"Thanks… but Ron is going around telling people really bad things about me!"

"What a wanker" That had actually been the first time Hermione had heard that particular word, and looking back she was glad she hadn't asked Theo for its meaning at that point.

After that, Hermione found herself sitting with Theo and Blaise in Arithmacy and Muggle Studies all the time, and they became her friends while Ron and Harry were giving her the cold shoulder. They both seemed to love muggle culture, and Theo had almost reignited her old love of Star Trek.

Despite being quiet, Theo made a good study partner, and she became one of the few people who he actually spoke to on a regular basis. Even after she had made up with Harry and Ron, she still remained friendly with the two Slytherins.

"I thought you only had three sisters" Hermione said, snapping out of her memories as she noticed Theo put down four in the Number of Siblings space on the sheet.

"Nah, I have – or had – four older sisters" he explained "Alice; whose dead now – " Hermione noticed the sorrow that crept into his voice as he mentioned Alice, however he kept it under control " – as well as Estelle and Joanne, and then there's Gabriella."

Now Hermione remembered Gabriella; Theo rarely spoke of his eldest sister, and the few times that he had Hermione had gotten the impression that he really didn't want to talk about her.

"Oh" he said, looking over to her side of the sheet and changing the subject "your birthday is this Wednesday. I knew it was sometime next week."

"Oh shit" Blaise said "I mean umm… yah, of course it's on Wednesday. Let's have a party in The Shop!"

"Blaise!" Hermione protested "you're meant to be using that room to work in!"

"I do heaps of work in there." He replied "I'm allowed to have a bit off fun."

Hermione was about to give Blaise a lecture on abusing the privileges Prof. Burbage had given him, but she stopped in horror when she saw the date that Theo had placed in the Date of Birth space.

They had all brought up the topic of birthdays before, but Hermione was sure that Theo mustn't have told her his birthday, for Hermione was sure she'd have remembered that he was born on the twenty-fifth of December.

"Oh, you were born on Christmas" Hermione said.

"Yup" Theo said in mock excitement "As I kid I always got my Christmases and birthdays ruined in one shot."

"Ruined?"

"Well it's also the day my mother died, so Dad was always really depressed and drunk. Of course, I've had two awesome birthdays with the Zabini's, and that makes up for it."

"Oh… I see."

Hermione knew that Theo's fourteenth birthday was not one of those two awesome ones. That night was the night of the Yule Ball. That was the night when her shallowness ruined things between the two of them.

The day after the Yule Ball was announced, Theo had managed to separate himself from Blaise, and then he asked Hermione to the Ball. He was just trying to be a good friend of course, and at that stage she didn't know that Viktor had his eye on her. She had thought that everyone would forget about her until the last minute when either Harry or Ron needed a partner. Yet despite that, she had still said "No" to him before even thinking about it.

It wasn't a "No thanks Theo" or "Thanks, but I have other plans" it was just a flat out "No". When she thought about it later, Hermione realised that she wouldn't have really minded going to the Ball with Theo, however when he asked all she could think about was his acne, and his missing teeth, and his shaggy fringe. Hermione turned down the nicest boy in Hogwarts because he wasn't good-looking enough. It was without a doubt the most shameful thing she had ever done.

Theo seemed to take the rejection well enough, and Hermione quickly tried to make excuses for it, but obviously Theo could tell why she had really shot him down, and after that he started to avoid her, or avoid making eye contact with her. Even Blaise acted a bit colder towards her for a while.

On the night of the Yule Ball Hermione went looking for Theo, hoping to have a dance with him and hopefully repair the damage she'd done. She eventually found Sally-Anne Peaks, who at the time was Blaise's girlfriend. She had been in a foul mood because Blaise had stood her up, saying that Theo was sick and that he was going to stay in their dormitory to keep him company.

Hermione figured that she had been in some way responsible for Theo deciding not to go to the Yule Ball (and by extension, for Blaise and Sally-Anne's break-up) and it had always haunted her. Knowing that it had actually been Theo's birthday just made her feel worse.

"Hey Hermione are you alright?" Theo asked "you look sort of out of it."

"Oh, I'm alright" She said "Just trying to remember how tall I am."

"Yah, I haven't measured myself yet either. Want to measure each other?"

"Yah sure"

They went over to the wall, where Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst were also measuring and weighing each other and for some reason that Hermione couldn't understand, they were giggling as they worked.

Theo must have been lost in thought, for as he was measuring her he accidentally flicked his wand too far and sent the tape measure flying across the room and into Daphne Greengrass's hair. The Slytherin girl screeched loudly and thrashed about until Malfoy was able to get the tape measure off her.

Hermione and Theo locked eyes and started giggling. He smiled. He really smiled. Hermione had noticed that Theo had too smiles; a small restrained one that he must have developed to hide his teeth, and a real one that was only seen when he was too happy to restrain it.

This smile did nothing to hide the three teeth that he had lost from his upper left side, or the prominent gap between his front teeth – diastema – her parents would call it. However there was something about this smile that Hermione found very attractive; it made Theo's face look well, extremely cute. It was very easy to ignore his physical shortcomings when he smiled.

"What the hell was that for Nott?" Daphne Greengrass yelled from across the room.

"Sorry" Theo called back, his wonderful smile disappearing "it was an accident."

Wonderful smile or not, Hermione was so glad to have Theodore Nott as a real friend again.

:Later:

Draco Malfoy stopped by the dormitory after dinner, and faced a tough choice. Urquhart had called Qudditch Practice tonight, but tonight would also be a good chance to work on his own special mission.

However he knew that he had until June to complete his mission; he only had until November to beat Potter in Quidditch. He could always quit the team after he had beaten Potter; that would give him plenty of time to earn his glory from The Dark Lord, and he'd still get a bit of revenge on that self-righteous prick.

He took his Quidditch robes out of his trunk and was about to get changed, when something on the other side of the room caught his eye. Zabini had bewitched a feather-duster to dust his cars while he was out. Stupid muggle model cars, they didn't even move. Draco felt a familiar anger wash over him, the same anger he had always felt when he thought about Blaise Zabini.

I have to share a room with a filthy Half-Blood! Draco thought to himself, his teeth grinding against each other as he thought of Zabini spreading his muggleness all around Slytherin – which should mean Pureblooded only – House. With his useless muggle cars scatted around every available surface, his ear-shattering muggle music playing loudly at irregular times, and the ugly faces of those muggle so-called musicians staring down at him from still posters, and don't forget that stupid cat sleeping in the basket by his bed; a cat that was patted by muggles, fed by muggles, and probably even impregnated by some inferior muggle cat.

Why did Zabini act so proud of being part muggle? If he acted ashamed of having a muggle father like Lilith did, than that would be a bit more understandable. Or if he was more like Tracy, whose Mudblood father was at least able to overcome enough of his muggleness to be useful to the Dark Lord and marry a Squib from the Pureblooded Rosier family without causing too much anger.

Draco smiled at the thought of the Rosier family. It was the one redeeming quality about Zabini really, that despite his muggle father, he still had some good blood in him. His uncle Evan Rosier had been a loyal follower of the Dark Lord; and his grandfather still was. His blood-traitor mother had once been Mary Rosier, and then Mary Carrow when she had married Agenor Carrow. Though she ended up killing him and becoming a muggle-loving whore; too bad really.

Draco threw his Quidditch robes away in frustration, however they simply bounced off Nott's stupid force-field. Draco picked them up and shoved them back in the trunk, his anger now directed at that other inferior in his dormitory. Peter Nott may be an old drunken idiot, but the Nott's were still one of the purest families around. His Father had even looked into arranging a marriage for him with the youngest Nott daughter.

Such a waste of good blood Draco thought as he looked in disgust at Zabini and Nott's beds; the brilliant Rosier daughter only has children with a muggle, and the Nott heir is a lunatic. Such a waste. And I have to share a room with both of them.

Draco quickly left the dormitory, all thoughts of Quidditch forgotten. The world needed changing. And only by completing his mission could he bring about any worthwhile change.