A/N: Thank you for reading this far. :) I say, this is a lot of fun. Favourite and Follow for updates!

Chapter 3: Merry Christmas?

The week leading up to Christmas was anything but quiet. All of Kingsbridge went into yule frenzy. Just about every single tree was heavily decorated with ornaments. The sidewalks, houses, and stores were lined with enough flashing Christmas lights to give everyone in heaven an epileptic seizure. The town practically oozed Christmas. If a person was not singing carols, they were passing out gingerbread cookies…and fruitcake to the children's disapproval. If they were not passing out food, they were carrying around mistletoes in hopes of some holiday snogging. The weather was cold, but the sensation of the town was very warm.

Things were just as festive at the orphanage. A large Christmas tree was brought into the main hall for the kids to decorate as they saw fit. It was covered from head to toe with stars, popcorn, small crafts, bulbs, fake icicles, and glitter. Every bedroom door had a wreath decorated by the occupants on it. Mrs. Hutchinson even created clouds on the ceiling of the main hall that would snow from noon to bedtime, albeit it was only fake snow that disappeared when it came into contact with anything. The fireplace stayed lit and burned special cinnamon infused logs that's smell permeated throughout the entire building. The staff had also taken the time to make a bottomless hot cocoa and cider dispenser for everyone's enjoyment, not just the children.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Rosette realized that she had no new books to read, and if she did not get to the library by three o'clock that afternoon, she would not get a chance to check out the new potions tome until January 2nd when the library would open back up. She was very alarmed to see that it was already eleven o'clock in the morning. Breakfast hours had already gone by and lunch would not be until one. With no time to spare, she quickly showered and threw on her knee length green thermal dress with silver trimmings on hem and ends of the sleeves. It thankfully had a hood attached to shield her ears from the cold. She put on black knee length socks on and slipped on a pair of black Mary Janes. She was just about to leave when she walked past the mirror and caught sight of her hair. Whhhyyyy?! she groaned. She did the best she could to contain the mass of curls by putting them into a ponytail with the green and silver ponytail holder Siobhan had gotten her last year for her birthday. She then, braided some of the stray curls that had fallen on the right side of her face and slipped a green hair bead onto the braid. After grabbing her coat and messenger bag (which seemed a little heavier than she remembered), she raced downstairs. She decided to forgo trying to make cereal and opted to just take a pear with her.

Mrs. Hutchinson was in the middle of doing the laundry. Laundry day was an all day job at the orphanage.

"I'm going to make a quick run to the library, Mrs. Hutchinson!" Rosette yelled as she opened the main door.

Mrs. Hutchinson snorted. There's no such thing as a "quick run to the library" with that child. "Alright, dearie! Be back before four!" she replied.

Rosette began her mad dash to the library, only slowing down to say "hello" to those that insisted on greeting her. I never run. Can't they see that I'm in a hurry? Oh no, oh no! It's already noon!

Rosette let out a sigh of relief as she rounded the corner and saw the library. She quickly dropped her books into the return slot outside the door, ran inside, and made a beeline to the front desk.

"I'd like to check out that potions tome, now! You put it on reserve for me, right?" she asked hastily.

The little old man behind the counter smiled at her as he fixed his half-mooned spectacles. "Ah, yes…young Rosette. I have already shelved the book," Rosette's expression shifted from excitement to extreme anguish. "But, it is still there. No one but you checks out academic tomes, so there was no need to ever worry. Go on."

Those words mentally resuscitated Rosette's spirit, and the girl took off towards that said part of the library. After searching the bookcase for the intended tome, she finally spotted it… on the top shelf. Figures it would be all the way up there… She needed that tome. Now. She made sure the coast was clear before reaching in her bag for her father's wand. While digging around, her hand brushed on something scaly. And fat.

"Apep! You fat nuisance! What are you doing in here?!"

The lizard barely looked up at her and yawned, "Something didn't seem right in the air, so I decided to come along. Problem, Adalinda?"

Rosette scowled at the skink after noticing that he had been chewing on the pear she was saving. "Why did you eat my pear?! And why do you never call by my FIRST name?"

"I thought we were going to share. You act as if I ate the entire thing. I could have if I truly wanted to, but I didn't. Give me the credit when it is due. And I prefer your middle name. 'Noble Serpent'. I think it sounds rather nice."

"Just move over so I can get papa's wand."

"As you wish"

Rosette finally pulled the wand out of her bag. "Accio Tome!" The tome zoomed off the shelf and into her free hand.

Apep's reasoning for coming with her began to bug her. He always seemed to know when bad things were going to happen, like when her parents were going to argue or when it was going to storm really bad and et cetera.

"What do you mean "something did not seem right in the air"? It's Christmas Eve. Everyone is happy and there has been no talk of bad weather. Maybe you're just a Scrooge."

"Adalinda, this air is not from Kingsbridge, and it reeks of malicious intent." Apep warned. For once, he sounded very grave. This worried Rosette quite a bit. Apep was rarely ever serious about anything, and when he was, things unfavourable happened. "Things feel off."

"Maybe you're right…I'll go ahead and check out this tome. Then I'll go straight hom-"

A loud boom interrupted the two's conversation.

"Adalinda…"

Another boom, this time even louder and bits of the ceiling began to crumble.

"You need to run, fool! Forget about checking the silly book out, just take it and ru-"

The ceiling of the library began to cave in. One of the bookcases was hit by the falling ceiling and fell, causing the others to domino with it. Rosette ran to avoid being crushed. She was almost out of the way, when a large number of books fell. One of them managed to hit right above her heel, making her fall. As much as it hurt, she did not want to be crushed by the bookcase, so she started to crawl as fast as she could. She was just about there when her luck ran out. The bookcase came down square on her heel, effectively cutting into her flesh and snapping the bone. Her blood curdling scream rang throughout the building. Apep swiftly exited the bag to survey the damage.

"Oi, this is very bad. You're going to have to try to levitate this bookcase off of your leg."

Rosette looked at her situation through her tears. She had never moved an object that large before. A watermelon was the largest object she had ever lifted before, and even that came with difficulties. She began to cry and shake violently.

"I- I c-c-c-can't d-do it!" she wailed. "It's t-t-too hea-heav-v-vy."

Apep sighed. Things would end on a gruesome note if she did not calm down and move the bookcase. "Focus. Reach out with your hand and concentrate. I know you can do it. You're without a doubt, the smartest seven year old I have ever seen, and your magic rivals that of a fifth year. I believe in you. Now, move the bookcase."

Rosettenodded at her scaly companion and held her hand out towards the bookcase, mustering all the all the magic she could. It was beyond heavy. The first few tries to move the massive object complete failures. The bookcase only let up ever so slightly before coming back down onto her broken heel, eliciting another agonizing cry from her. "Apep-"

"Move. The. Bookcase. Little one."

She shot him a tearful glare but nodded silently. After a few more minutes of hopeless attempts, she was finally able to lift the bookcase enough to wiggle her mangled foot out of harm's way and allowed herself to mewl. Her heel and below were an utterly imbrue mess. Her shoe was lost in the pile of books that fell with the bookcase, and the bottom of her sock was shredded and damp with her blood. Despite her extensive knowledge of magic, healing was a topic she hadn't gotten to. She looked sullenly at her foot. "W-what am I g-g-going to do about m-m-m-m-my f-foot?"

Apep sighed dejectedly, "You don't know any spells to fix yourself up, huh?

Rosette dolefully shook her head.

He sighed, again. "Can you at least clean it up? We don't need you contracting anything."

She weakly held her hand over her foot and cast Scourgify. The bits of dirt and dried blood in and around the wound instantly washed away, leaving her feeling a little better. She tried to stand, but the possibility of that was quickly denied as she let out a yelp and crumbled back to the floor. Seeing as how standing was out of the question, she began to crawl forward so she could see what became of the library. She pulled herself up onto a fallen pillar and gasped.

The library overall was a heartrending site. Much of the ceiling lay on the ground, making the place look like nothing more than a large pile of rubble and torn paper. Whatever caused the loud boom also managed to scorch the building, as part of the library continued to smoke. Some of the books were still on fire to Rosette's dismay. Not the books, she thought sadly. Then, an ugly little realization wriggled into her head. Where was the little old man? She scanned the area for the check-out desk. Her heart sunk when her eyes found a gory scene. There was not much of a desk left. Instead, a massive part of the ceiling seemed to have fallen right where the old mad sat. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she slumped off the pillar and landed back on the floor. Out of what was left of the window, she could see that the rest of the town most likely looked like the library. She could see the smoke of the other burning stores and vaguely hear muffled screams and panicked footsteps. What's going on? How could this have happened? What about the orphanage? Siobhan! These thoughts ran through her head for a long moment before she heard the voices of unknown people. She quickly crawled to a small hiding space made by the fallen rubble and focused towards the sound of the voices. Soon after, she found who the voices belonged to. A group of witches and wizards in heavy dark robes and eerie masks browsed the area.

One of them laughed maniacally, "That just about does it! This place has been cleared of all the scum. A shame, though. This was a disgustingly beautiful little town."

"Indeed," Another tall wizard agreed, "Maybe we will come back and rebuild this area for the next pureblood generation."

"Wonder why we were told not to touch the orphanage. Not much of a cleansing if we leave some alive right?" a stout witch asked curtly.

Rosette stifled a sigh of relief. Thank heavens the orphanage was spared.

"Most of those children are purebloods that lost their parents for whatever reason. They'll be recruitable when they start their years at Hogwarts," a skinny wizard answered. "The Dark Lord told us to return to the Riddle House after we finished."

"Go without him?"

"That's what he said. I think we should leave now to avoid being tardy. I personally am not a fan of his punishments."

The others mumbled in agreement before they all disapparated.

Rosette sat in silence, thinking about what she had just heard. She had no previous knowledge of a group that went around killing those that weren't purebloods for fun, due to the amount of sheltering her parents insisted on. And Mrs. Hutchinson never mentioned them either. The thought of their actions made Rosette feel ill. If that group truly carried out their mission, no one in the town should have survived. The town was full of muggleborns and halfbloods, with the exception of a few pureblood families. The reason why the orphanage was full of pureblood children was because the orphanage had a great reputation. Pureblood families in surrounding towns went through the trouble of making sure their children were placed there if anything were to happen. Knowing that their child would be placed in Kingsbridge Orphanage if anything were to happen gave them peace at mind, especially those with dangerous jobs.

Rosette looked around for Apep and found he had crawled back in her bag.

"What do you think we should do, Apep? I don't think anyone is alive. I can't walk. My foot hurts really badly."

Apep looked at their surroundings. Things looked pretty bleak. He wished he hadn't been so hoggish earlier with the pear. In reality, he could go for days without eating just fine. But, for some reason, he was born with a love of food and at times, ate more than a human. But Rosette would need to eat soon, seeing as how she skipped breakfast and it was already lunchtime. At least he saved half of the pear, right?

He sighed, "I'm sure the Aurors will be here soon…" He knew they were going to be there for a while before the Aurors got there. To lighten he mood, he decided to change the topic to something more uplifting to make her forget about their situation. As smart as she was, her attention span relocated itself easily when something of interest came up. He began to talk to her about Hogwarts. The two got so caught up in their conversation that they failed to notice the man and large snake heading towards them.

The man looked at the small town, now reduced to ruins, and grinned. The cleansing had been very successful. For once, he was proud of his Death Eaters. There had been no slip-ups. Pity, though. He rather enjoyed the looks on their faces when they were under his Cruciatus curses. Oh well. He had gotten more than enough amusement while torturing that mudblood couple. The man began to stroll through what use to be the town, explaining what each pile of wreckage use to be to his slithering confidant.

"And that use to be a broom shop, Nagini. I bumped into an adorable little girl of African descent in there. She seemed oddly familiar. I wonder what became of her."

"Probably dead. I'm hungry. Your morons succeeded in thoroughly charring every townsperson here. Much too crispy for my taste," the large snake hissed. She was promised a feast, yet was only left with burnt morsels, and was very displeased.

The man chuckled at her grouching, "You act as If I can't just kill someone else for you. Just wait a bit longer. I heard a new muggle family moved close to the Riddle House. Now, we can celebrate this victory closer to home."

"Whatever you say. Just know that if I am not fed soon, you will have one less Death Eater following you."

The man smirked at the thought of her eating one of his followers. They were expendable, true enough. But, he rather have as many as possible ready for these kinds of operations. Many purebloods fed up with muggles, mudbloods, and halfbloods had already pledged their loyalty to him, and the group was growing at an alarming rate. The more, the merrier.

"It's a shame. That library was very beautiful," he said as they walked by the remains of the library. He was speaking in all seriousness. The splendour of the library that once stood there rivalled Hogwarts's own library.

"Do you hear that?" Nagini said, suddenly very alert. The man listened closely, and could in fact, hear a faint hissing. Two distinct hisses. Upon listening a bit harder, he and Nagini recognized the hissing as parseltongue. The two looked at each other in disbelief. Another parselmouth was a rare thing. It was a hereditary gift from Salazar Slytherin himself, and as far as the man knew, he was the last living descendant. Nagini slithered on ahead, eager to find out who this possible heir or heirs were. It wasn't every day that she had the chance to communicate with someone new. They both silently crept towards the hisses, not wanting to be seen before evaluating this extraordinary possibility. After positioning themselves behind a large wall fragment, the both peeked out from the sides.

The man almost gasped out loud. That girl! From the broom shop! His mind, previously swimming with questions and ideas, became vacuous of any thoughts except for one. How? He took a good look at her. She seemed to have been caught up in the chaos that his group had caused, and for some reason, his heart (what was left of it) felt like it had been wrung. Her clothes were covered in dirt and ash, and her little face was covered in tiny cuts. She must have fallen. Then, his eyes widened as he took note of her left foot. Right on her heel was a large, bloody, and untreated gash. Poor girl. She was not alone, for on her head lay a podgy snake with…little arms and legs? A lizard of some sort? Her reptilian friend appeared to be trying to take her mind off her condition by keeping her amused and giggling. He watched the girl pull a few photos out of her bag and initiated a conversation about the people in the photos. Something about "making them proud". The man had so many questions for her, and his concern for her heel became unbearable. He slowly came out from his hiding space, pushing Nagini back behind the wall fragment. He didn't want the girl to soil herself at the sight of the large snake.

"Are you alright?" The girl and lizard jumped at the sound of human speech, for they had been solely hissing at each other for nearly an hour. The lizard atop the girl's head took as much of a defensive stance as a fat lizard could, flicking his blue tongue out at an alarming rate. The girl however, just stared intently at the man with her violet eyes.

"You're the man from the broom shop! Hi!" She then smiled at him. "Nice to see you, again. Thank you for picking me up when I fell. Could you maybe help me, again? My foot…I don't know how to fix it."

He looked at her foot, then back to her face. He had never been very adept with healing spells since his pastimes only included torturing and killing people. But, she really needed the help, and there was a chance they were related. With two heirs of Slytherin, his reign would be even more unstoppable than it already was. "I couldn't help but notice that you are a parselmouth."

"A parselmouse? What's that?"

"No, a parselMOUTH. You can talk to serpent-like creatures. I can, too."

The girl was surprised. No one else that she knew seemed to be able to talk to animals.

He finally cast a successful healing spell to somewhat mend her bone and close up the gash. She would still need a few potions for things to be complete, but at least now the bone was together and her wound wasn't exposed.

"Thank you so much, Mister-"

"Tom," he answered.

The girl's mind began to wander, "Mum said that I had a brother named Tom Mar-marlovololovo. But, she told me that he died a long time ago with his papa."

The man cautiously asked, "Marvolo?"

"Yeah! I could never say his name right. How'd you know how to say it?" she asked curiously.

The man ignored her question, "Who are you parents, child?"

"My papa's name was Charles Sarpong." So, she was the orphan in the news a couple of years ago, but that must mean, "And my mum's name was Merope. But, they died," she exclaimed crestfallenly. "Here they are." She showed him the photos she was clutching. The man had never actually seen his mother before, except for the time when he went to "visit" his uncle and noticed a few dusty family portraits. The woman in the portraits looked exactly like the woman in her photos, albeit with a few grey hairs. This little girl had to be his sister. They were both parselmouths, which was already enough to say that they were in some way related, and apparently had the same mother.

After about twenty minutes of them both trading knowledge about their mother, the two came to the agreement that they were in fact, half siblings.

"I can't believe I have a brother!"

I can't believe that wretched woman left me at that muggle infested orphanage and had another baby in her fifties. That is disgusting. He looked at the little girl's happy face. But, I'm glad she left me with a sibling. And Merlin, I'm more than relieved to see that she looks nothing like our homely mother did.

"We must go. Your foot needs proper care, and I unfortunately, cannot do more than this." He reached for the girl, when the lizard jumped out and nipped at his finger.

The lizard, whom he learned was named Apep, glared at him, "I'll be keeping a close eye on you. Hurt her, and you'll be sorry," he warned.

The man held in a derisive snort and nodded. He then, picked the girl up in his arms. "So, you agree to stay with me, your brother?"

"Of course! But, can I maybe send an owl to the orphanage to let them know that I'm ok?" How could he say no to that face?

"Yes, that should be fine," he said. He smiled. Things were sure to change at the Riddle House.

A/N: Gentle reviews are always welcomed! Thank you for reading!