INTERLUDE IV
The day a father was surpassed in strength by his son was the worst day of any man's life.
Some believed it was something to be proud of, as though a part of themselves would live on forever in the ones they had sired, but they were insipid fools. When a father witnessed his son do something that he could no longer do- or worse, could never have done- was the day he reckoned with his mortality.
Elias Torrington had felt it the moment his son rescued him from Azkaban.
He had never felt weaker in his life.
Elias had spent years as a Knight of Walpurgis, but half a lifetime of service had only given him the right to stand at the side of an Acolyte. His son had managed the same before he was even twenty-three.
He'd once believed that he would become a king in the new world order, but he now knew the sun had set on that dream.
Especially as the rankings of the Knights had fluctuated since his imprisonment back in '79. He had tied his fate to the former General Dolohov years ago, years before his son had even been born. When he rose, Elias had risen, but as he fell, Elias fell too.
The Torrington name would have fallen with it if it hadn't been for his son. "I am so proud of you," he had lied to him that first night, as Elijah sat at his bedside and excitably told him all that had occurred since they had last seen each other. In many ways, he was still the same little boy he remembered.
Elias wished he could have stayed that way.
He had raised a dutiful son, one that would brave even Azkaban for a chance to aid his father, but that might be his undoing now.
"Father, see reason!" Elijah pleaded. "We have a place here, a place serving our Lord."
"There are many different ways to serve the Dark Lord, and I don't think listening to a little girl-"
"General Cushing breached the Barrier that kept you a prisoner!" Elijah glanced around nervously even though they were alone. "Do not insult her."
They continued to argue like that, back and forth, until their voices grew hoarse and Elijah left his quarters in a childish fit.
When the sun rose the next day and Elias was beginning to plan how he would explain this setback to the former General, his son returned with an apology already on his lips.
Elias smiled. He was lucky to have sired such a dutiful boy.
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"It was easy to convince him," Elias said proudly. "My boy knows loyalty."
Antonin nodded, hardly removing his eyes from the specimen he was working on. Both wizards ignored the little boy's hysterical screams for his mother. "Excellent. He has grown into a formidable duellist. We need him."
Elias twitched but bowed subserviently. "Yes, General. We do." He smothered a smirk at the way Antonin preened at the sound of his former title. That was something his boy did not yet have, the ability to give people what they thought they wanted while taking everything you needed from them.
But he didn't know that Elijah had paid a visit to General Cushing after storming out of his father's quarters the night before.
He also didn't know that Antonin's plans for betrayal only continued because Tom Riddle allowed it.
A dutiful boy indeed.