Lord Voldemort, aka, Tomos Marvolo Riddle was sitting in Malfoy Manor reviewing the recent loss at this Ministry when he received an owl, which was surprising on its own.
Nobody owled Lord Voldemort.
If his death eaters needed him they had other ways of contacting him and there was no one else he could think of that would be or would want to be messaging him. He was Lord Voldemort after all.
He did a scan over the letter and beside a basic privacy ward, nothing else was on the letter, extra suspicious. Cautious he popped open the letter to an even bigger surprise, elegant parselscript.
Dear Lord Voldemort,
You do not know who I am yet, but if you did you would understand how weird it is for me to address you by your formal title. That is beside the point though unfortunately. I write this in a bit of a rush and as a plead for aid. I am requesting a rescue as soon as you are able and sanctuary after you have come for us. You will not believe what I say without proof and at this moment in time, I only have the small vial I have attached to this letter. It is my blood. My name is Elain Slytherin and I am one of your children. There is much more to our story but I am running out of time to write this while my siblings cover for me. Test the blood and prove for yourself that I speak true. Then come and rescue me, my four siblings, and our bearer. We are being held hostage at the former Black residence of number 12 Grimmauld Place, London by Dumbledore and his Order of stupid, blind sheep. Please hurry, I am unsure how much longer we can protect Dad from them.
With Hope and Love,
Elain Anita Potter-Slytherin
Heiress Slytherin
What in Salazar's name did he just read. It has to be a prank, but who would be suicidal enough to prank Lord Voldemort? The vial at the bottom of the letter was attached with a weak sticking charm and definitely looked like blood. There was really only one choice to make.
"Ranpi!" Voldemort called out summoning one of the many Malfoy elves that arrived with a quiet pop.
"What can Ranpi be doing for his Lord Darkness?" Ranpi bowed, nose to the floor.
"Get Narcissa up here at once so I may summon some of my followers, now!" Voldemort ordered. Getting up to pull what he needed to test the blood, although he would wait until Severus was summoned to verify the results.
Narcissa knocked lightly on the door before entering the room, "You summoned me, my lord?"
"Narcissa I need your arm," Voldemort said causing Narcissa to raise her brow but holding out her arm. Voldemort almost never used her mark, but with Lucius, in Azkaban, it was probably his quickest choice, she reasoned.
Voldemort pressed his yew wand to her dark mark, summoning Severus and Augustus Rookwood to the manor immediately.
"Narcissa would you welcome Snape and Rookwood when they arrived and send the house elves for these ingredients before you retired for the evening," he spoke softly as he handed her the list of potion ingredients he needed to verify the blood. "Oh and we may have guests later, but I doubt it."
"Yes my lord." Narcissa nodded confused by the dark lord's behavior, but she definitely wasn't dumb enough to question him, taking her to leave quickly.
If this was a prank then whoever it was would die a very painful and prolonged death. On the off chance that it was all true though, he would have to make some intricate plans to try to invade a possible stronghold of the Order of Phoenix. Would it even be worth it? How did he have 5 children that he knew nothing of? Just trying to wrap his mind around it was giving him a migraine.
The knock on the door pulled him from his turmoil'd thoughts reluctantly.
"Come in." Voldemort intoned in the coolest voice he could at the moment. Severus and Augustus entered quickly, bowing either in respect or fear, perhaps a bit of both.
"Take a seat. I need you to verify this letter, Augustus. Severus, I need you to test this vial of blood as well. Narcissa is getting the ingredients you'll need now." Voldemort said without preamble. Handing the items over to the two men, both looking confused at this change of events. "Severus do you have anything to report to me about the Order?"
"Are you looking for specific information My Lord?" Severus asked with some trepidation.
"I would think that my spy within the order would have brought me knowledge pertaining to this letter prior to me receiving it." Voldemort hissed angrily, slipping slightly into parseltongue.
Severus kept his face blank but quickly read over the letter and cursed the Potter line in his head. Every single one of them was going to be a blight as long as he lived.
"It is … complicated my Lord," Severus said quickly, trying to think how he would talk himself out of this. Damn the Potters.
"Severus. I am going to be very straightforward. You have until you get the results from that vial of blood. Then I expect you to make a choice. You will either work for Dumbledore or you will come back to work for me. I suggest you decide wisely, especially if that letter proves to be true. Everything is going to change. Do use your brain, my dear potions master." Voldemort stood and swept out of the room, leaving Augustus and Severus alone.
"Well looks like you fucked up Sev." Augustus drawled, a smirk on his lips.
"Shut up Auggie. I have a potion to brew." Severus snarled, taking the vial of blood and heading down to the Malfoy potions lab. Thankfully he could brew this potion deaf, dumb, and blind. He had a lot to think about and not much time to do it.
"Oh, Lily… what do I do?" Severus sighed.
*PLTS*
"What do we do if Father doesn't come Armand?" Elaine hissed worriedly.
"Fight our way out I assume. I don't want it to come to that though. I am thinking that Dad and Father left out a lot from their stories, or we ended up in an alternate universe and are truly screwed." Armand mused, deep in thought.
"Armand, if we ever get back to our time, remind me to kick your ass," Elaine said with a sadistic smile that was a little too similar to their father's smile.
"Is Dad okay?" Armand asked hesitantly causing Elaine to sigh.
"They aren't letting any of us in the same room as him but Aunt Hermione says thus far he has just been sleeping."
"Elaine… I am worried that I have really messed up. Us being here changes so much."
"You mean that we might not be born now. Especially you considering your true Father is who rescued Dad from the manipulations of the Light side. I have thought about it as well, all of us except perhaps Jai knew that going into this we might mess up the timeline too much for us to live. But as long as we can save Dad then the adults can figure out the rest of the details." Elaine wrapped her arms around Armand, hugging him tightly. They weren't the most cuddly of families but sometimes it was called for. "You cannot take on all the responsibilities all of the time Armand. We may not make it back to our time, hell we may fade out of existence while we are here even-"
"Elaine this is not an inspiring speech," Armand muttered dryly.
"Hush you. As I was saying, we need to take advantage of what we can while we are here. Just think, your real father is still alive. You can meet Lucius! I know you have always wanted to do that." Elaine smiles softly, trying to encourage her ever-pessimistic brother.
"Yeah, but his wife and his actual heir will be alive as well." Armand pointed out.
"SO it'll be an awkward reunion, whatever." Elaine scoffed.
"I think we need to tackle escaping here first, keeping the peace between father and dad, and trying to save the man that went through the veil."
"Gee no pressure."
"Good thing we have Potter genes then." Armand grinned sarcastically, throwing Elaine's words back at her. Before Elaine could berate her brother further, Number 12 Grimmauld Place shook down to its foundations.
"I do believe Father had possibly arrived to save us," Elaine said with a grin.
"I'll run interference with Father, you get the others up to Dad. Wands at the ready." Armand ordered, grabbing his wand and heading down the dusty, creaking steps. Elaine headed further up, snagging her siblings from their assigned rooms on the way. Hopefully, everything would work out and the Potter luck held strong, they were going to need it now more than ever.