My Time
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Chapter 11
Orion managed an entire day before he used the Floo network to get to the Leaky Cauldron. Recalling which room Hayden said he was in, as he made his way up the staircase to the rooms above the Leaky Cauldron. Grimacing a little at how dank and dreary this place was, wondering why everyone had fought so hard to save it. They really should have built somewhere else, but that would have been a major inconvenience.
Finding room eleven, he knocked firmly on the door waiting to see if Hayden was even in the room. He might not be, after all, Orion was aware that he had a lot to do.
The door swung open a few minutes later, "Oh, hey, I thought you were lunch. Come on in, sorry about the mess…" he trailed off, but he wasn't exactly embarrassed just sheepish.
"It's fine," Orion waved off the apology as he stepped in, glancing around the room and the view. It was horrible, he couldn't believe anyone would wish to live here. No matter how temporarily, there were much better accommodations elsewhere. The view was just disgusting too, rail tracks? And the windows were dirty too.
"You're not going to catch anything, you know," Hayden teased him, as he closed the door. "How is the family?" his teasing tone fading.
Orion sighed, "We're…okay, my father has arranged for a funeral, it's schedule in six days' time. The Ministry has already completed their investigation and have released her remains for burial. You'll receive your invitation soon I'm sure, my father has been going through samples of invitations for the past half hour." A funeral at the beginning of a new year, well, not good.
"You know it's alright not to be okay, right?" Hayden said softly, as he sat on the end of his bed. "Nobody expects you to be. If they do, then they're heartless bastards."
A knock interrupted their rather intimate discussion, "That must be my lunch this time!" Hayden jumped up, and made his way to the door, the Hag levitated the food over to the bed, before leaving without a word. "Thank you!" he called down the hallway, as she wheeled away the cart which had other meals on it, apparently, he wasn't the only one staying at the Leaky Cauldron at the moment, that requested lunch.
"Help yourself," Hayden urged him, as he moved it towards the table, using Wandless magic to move the pile of paperwork so he could sit the tray down. "Or I can order you something? Are you hungry?"
"Starving actually, I haven't eaten since…" he trailed off, he hadn't eaten since breakfast that time, and he hadn't actually eaten much more than a few forkfuls of scrambled egg and a piece of toast before the whole thing happened. He just hadn't felt hungry at all.
"Bloody hell, Orion, starving yourself isn't good," Hayden admonished him, his worry evident in his green eyes. "Eat this, I'll go order something else." shuffling the food over to him with a stern look on his face, he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"I can order for myself," Orion pointed out wryly. Although, part of him felt warm that he was being taken care of. Everyone just expected him to take care of them, except his parents, of course, but even they would need him to take care of them when he became Lord.
"Is there something you don't like?" Hayden asked, looking over all the food on the plate. "I know it's nothing like the food we got the other day…I don't think much could be except a five-star restaurant." He conceded, "Do you want to go get a meal? I don't really know many magical restaurants though; you'd need to pick."
"This is fine," Orion said, he would have thought Hayden was just trying to impress him if he couldn't see the genuine concern. It hadn't wavered a bit since finding out he hadn't eaten for over twenty-four hours. "Despite its looks…the food is always decent."
"Alright," Hayden said relaxing a little, "I'll be back in a second!" leaving to get a second meal sent up to his room, hopefully Orion would eat everything on that tray.
"There's mail on the tray," Orion informed him, handing it over the second he returned to the room.
Hayden groaned, "I think every single Muggle-born responded to that advertisement." He informed Orion wryly, "I have over fifty letters already, and more just keep coming…" flicking through the letters, "Make that sixty-two now."
Orion's eyes widened, "That many?"
"There's money to be made from it," Hayden shrugged, putting the letters amongst the rest on the desk. "Of course, they'll take it. It isn't easy for Muggle-born wizards and witches to get jobs, inherit prejudice is strong even if they don't mean to be. I mean can you name a single Muggle-born that's got a job in the Ministry?"
"How much did you actually offer them?" Orion asked in amazement, at the pile, all of them were offers to the agreement?
"Thirty-five galleons," Hayden told him, seeing the look on his face, "I mean if we publish the results, they need a decent incentive. They'll be signing that they agree to the results being published and getting nothing from the profit. Admittedly, not all of them will be published if we do go down that road…but better to be safe than end up taken to court." With the amount of money he had, it wasn't beyond reason to think he could be sued if someone got it into their head to do so and make 'easy money' as they say.
Orion arched a brow, he truly has been busy, "Gringotts standard contract?"
"Yes, I'm no good at things like that," Hayden told him, "I did read over the copy they sent, and it's ideal for our needs." Shuffling the paperwork around before handing off the Gringotts stamped sample document to Orion. "What do you think?"
A knock at the door had Hayden on the move again, which he was really grateful for. He'd been sitting in the same position all morning, and he had begun to ache until Orion showed up and got him moving.
"Thank you!" Hayden said to the Hag's retreating back, shaking his head, before sitting with his tray on the table on top of his work. Grabbing his plate, he began to greedily eat, he had slept through breakfast this morning so he was rather hungry.
"It's perfect, I can't find anything wrong with it, but it's from Gringotts, you don't expect one." Orion conceded, setting the document aside, and began to eat.
"Yeah, I'll probably need quite a few of them," Hayden said, sounding more amused than bothered by that.
"You're not really going to interview every single one of them, are you?" Orion asked incredulously. "Please, tell me you've made sure they're all Muggle-born and not half-blood's deciding to make some money by lying?"
Hayden snorted, "I'm not that daft, there was a warning in the paper that they only get the money after," so any attempts to lie to him would just be met with a waste of their time.
Both of them ate their meals while continuing their discussion.
"I didn't realize there were so many Muggle-borns," Orion confessed, his brow furrowed, not that he spent any time interacting with them. They were prejudice, offensive and insulting, why on earth would he waste his time associating with them?
"Can I ask why you hate them so much? Have you made any attempts to get to know them?" Hayden asked, after swallowing his mouthful of food. Staring inquisitively, he'd never asked a pureblood this, and was rather curious to know. "Prejudice inherited from your parents or do you just genuinely hate them for your own reasons?"
Orion stared at him blankly for a few moments, before wiping his mouth with the paper napkin. "They come into the magical world, claiming their religion is better than ours, refusing to give respect to mother magic who granted them such a wonderful gift. Devilising paganism as if it is the darkest of arts and shouldn't be performed. They're offensive and insulting in equal measures, deriding our traditions as barbaric. I fear one day they'll get their way and our practices will become obsolete. The magical world seems to cater to the Muggle born wizards as more trickle into our world. So, excuse me for not catering to their every whim and disregarding my own personal beliefs."
"Thanks," Hayden said, eating his food again.
"Thanks?" Orion was baffled, staring at Hayden as If he didn't understand.
"For explaining," Hayden told him, "I guess I thought it was just you know…their lack of magical parents that made everyone dislike Muggle borns so much." Shrugging his shoulders before taking a deep drink from the goblet to wash down the food. Mind reeling over this new information. The worst of it was…he was actually right; their fears would be realized.
Which probably made the resentment and anger fester, until a war broke out and murder seemed like the answer.
"No, now that would just be prejudice," Orion pointed out, although, to be fair, they were prejudice but with reason. A lot of reasons, each year that passed they worried that it would become worse, as more and more laws were passed to accommodate Muggle borns in their society.
"Anyone ever tried to change things or are they just waiting and watching for the inevitable train wreck?" Hayden asked wryly, plucking his dessert out, jam roly poly and custard.
"Why would we change?" Orion asked, gravely offended.
"No, Orion, change things, not yourself, not your beliefs," Hayden corrected his assumption. "A mandatory class on traditions and paganism at Hogwarts? Books written for Muggle borns entering our society in a way they'd understand? You all hoard knowledge, afraid to let others get their hands on it…it creates and breeds ignorance…intolerance…prejudice and it results in more barriers and obstacles…it will lead to a war if we're not careful."
Orion stared at Hayden slightly dazed, "Are you implying we're responsible for this?" not sounding at all defensive but a little stunned.
"No, neither party is fully guilty, but neither party are innocent." Hayden shook his head, putting his half-eaten dessert on the table, licking his lips, they were sticky. "You're all to blame, in your own ways, but something has to give sooner or later…hundreds of people have probably thought the same thing, spoken the same things they just haven't bothered to act." Until Tom Riddle of course, then later Lord Voldemort. He'd fought for a side in the war he wasn't entirely sure he agreed with.
Orion frowned, "That's disconcertingly similar to something someone else one said to me."
"Oh?" Hayden murmured, putting the tray together then the plates and cutlery. Satisfied that Orion had eaten everything on the tray. Padding to the door, he set the tray on the floor outside the door.
"Not quite in that manner," Orion conceded, watching Hayden move and continuing to speak. "But he made it clear he wasn't happy with how things were going and change needed to happen to revolutionise the magical world."
"Oh, boy," Hayden muttered, closing the door. He already had a good idea who on earth Orion was talking about. "Revolutions aren't exactly what I'd want. Rebellions lead to civil wars, wars, death, we've had enough of that in the past few decades to last a lifetime." Perhaps Tom Riddle had always intended to cause a revolution. Which made him leery about bloody fixing him and making him infinitely more powerful. Seven times he'd cut his soul up, or rather his soul was chipped away at until he was only working on a small fraction of his magic. Tom Riddle was off the chart powerful, more so than Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore. If he made him whole and he still went down that road…Hayden honestly didn't think he'd have the power to fight him.
"It might be the only way they could get through to everyone," Orion pointed out, personally he wouldn't get involved himself. He could never conceive in dragging the Black name through the mud. He agreed with almost everything else out of Tom Riddle's mouth. Or rather Voldemort's mouth. He really should warn Hayden about Riddle.
"No, Orion, it isn't, what part of history makes you think that's true?" Hayden asked staring at Orion incredulously, honestly not surprised by the 'they' Orion uttered. The Blacks hadn't joined Voldemort, whether it was because they wouldn't lower themselves to follow a Half-blood (Orion definitely knew for sure…Riddle was not a pureblood name regardless of his Slytherin heritage) or whether they just wanted nothing to do with his crusade. Their belief though…had led to Orion's youngest son joining, and look what happened. He was disillusioned and got killed as a result. "If anything, it would make matters worse. Violence should never be the answer and now I sound like a recipient who wants world peace." Laughing a little shaking his head.
Orion's lips twitched in amusement, recalling how…exuberant he was during the fire. Not at someone's death but the sheer exhilaration Hayden had displayed spoke of a person that wouldn't be happy without at least some sort of excitement in his life. Excitement where he could use his magic. The sheer thrill…Orion mentally gave himself a shake. "No, that's definitely not you."
Hayden grinned crookedly at Orion, no, it wasn't and it said something that Orion was observant enough to notice. "Alright, then, let's start sorting through the names, if you recognize any set them aside and we can figure out whether they are half blood or not."
"I'm going to guess you didn't have any luck with your properties?" Orion asked, eyeing the folder, "Are any of them habitable?"
Hayden groaned, "Don't remind me, I gave myself a headache getting through that pile of information yesterday. None of them have wards that are still functioning except for Peverell Estate. The Peverell must have enacted their own wards in the warding hub, it's the only explanation as to how they're still there." Magic isn't made to last forever, the hub helped stop wards from just falling once the ward caster died. Magically layered and layered over the years until they were entwined.
"And the rest of the properties?" Orion queried, "It's a good thing really, the most important home is still standing…?"
"Yeah, I suppose so, I guess I'll find out soon enough," Hayden told him, seeing the surprise on Orion's face he expanded, "I mean I'm really curious to know more about it. What it's like, what's there, items, clothes, books more importantly…information. The estate holds forty-nine bedrooms…why anyone would need that amount of room I'll never know."
"Tutors, au pair, babysitters, gardeners, and other workers you employ, relatives, friends, they would have had absolutely no trouble filling those rooms." Orion replied, "Back in those days, the House-elves did the cooking and some very light cleaning, but that is all. There was someone to do the rest of the work, in time they got lazy and expected a House-elf to do everything for free to save money." Puffing up a little as Hayden listened in rapid fascination.
"Au pair?" Hayden asked brow furrowing, it vaguely rang a bell, his aunt liked all those old-fashioned TV programmes, and Jane Austen books and the movies that were turned into books. Always watching them when her pig of a son was at school and he was too injured to attend.
"It's usually done by the Lady of the Manor, to select a foreign witch from abroad. Giving them a job taking care of the house, childcare and other things in exchange for food, room and of course, pocket money. It gives them a chance to learn the language and maybe if they're lucky enough meet their future husbands." Orion explained exactly what au pair actually was.
"Oh, I see," Hayden nodded slowly, didn't seem very fair to him, but at least they got money whereas House-elves didn't so he couldn't say anything. Plus, it would be just like foreign exchange programme which still happens in the Muggle world. Or rather would, to the day he returned to the past. "Do you think Walburga will take one on?"
"Hardly, Walburga can barely stand us, her own family, let alone a foreign Witch of unknown standing." Orion confessed quietly, he honestly didn't want to think about it, or her to be entirely honest. It was Hayden's fault really, if he hadn't come into his life like a whirlwind…quite literal as he had summoned one the other day…he would be content with his lot in life. Even if it meant marrying Walburga to keep the family line going. Now though? He'd rather end up homeless, penniless and be disowned and disinherited entirely, without a last name than marry Walburga…not to mention children, if his parents continued to force him to marry when they found out the truth? Well, there would be no children of their union. He would make sure of it, even if he had to use a spell – that was very painful – but 99.9% effective in ensuring he didn't have children, making his sperm useless.
Hayden shook his head, now that was entirely unfathomable to him. He would do absolutely anything for family, and who knows…maybe one day he'd actually get to see James and Lily raise their child and see what his life might have been like.
Hell, with a little luck he might be raising his own family…a child with Orion's mercury eyes, his slightly wavy hair, Peverell cheekbones, and he shook those thoughts off. No, he couldn't tease himself like that, it wasn't fair to him. "But does she really feel that way? It might be a front." Not sure why he was defending her…maybe because he wasn't supposed to know her? Because he didn't want to be seen as a jealous type?
"Oh, she does," Orion declared darkly, "First thing she asked for upon returning to the castle yesterday is if her belongings had been purchased yet." His grandmother had struggled to get his grandfather out of the room at that. As always Walburga didn't notice how angry everyone was around her was with her.
Hayden winced, looking at an utter loss for words. "I'm sorry," it was a pretty lame answer as far as answers went. Grabbing the first of the opened letters he handed them to Orion, "Here, the letters, see if you recognize any of the names, Brown and Smith are also quite big in the Muggle world too." Just in case he came across any of those names in particular.
He shuffled the unopened ones towards himself, and began to sift through them.
"Are you still intending on using Gringotts?" Orion asked as he sorted through the pile, absently sorting them alphabetically by last name as he did so out of habit. He noticed a few familiar names as he worked, from his years at Hogwarts.
"Actually no, I've found a ritual that will give us what we want!" Hayden said with excitement, "It literally lights up those with magic, the family tree, the Muggles will remain black…of course, but those with magic will light up a red colour, those that are from a wizarding line but squibs will appear blue, I can't wait to try it!" fishing out the book, he handed it over the page was marked by a piece of parchment.
Orion set the letters aside and read the chapter that Hayden had indicated to. Nodding absently as he did, it was a new book, old but new, you could tell by the spine. "This looks perfect for what we need."
"It seems to be, we'll find out if that's the case," Hayden told him, "I'm really curious to know if just one magical ancestor is enough or if they need to be joined with two in order to bring magic back." Almost vibrating with excitement.
Orion's lips twitched just observing Hayden. His excitement was rather infectious, he too felt it and couldn't wait to test it out. Part of him was still in disbelief at what he'd learned, the inbreeding was one thing, clearly explained…but to know Muggle born's were the result of squibs? With magic coming back to the lines. "You seem very sure that Muggle borns are a result of a squib ancestor."
"That's because they are," Hayden said throwing a grin at Orion, "I just don't know if it requires two squibs in the line for it to coalesce or if one is enough…maybe its both? Maybe if they join magic comes out faster than if its just one squib line…"
Orion wasn't sure what to think about that particular part of their project. If it was all true, then the magical world deserved to know, he doubted his parents would want a Muggle born in the family regardless, but would make sure that they didn't marry to closely to their own. "I want to inform my family of the evidence we've got so far on inbreeding."
"What?" Hayden glanced up, having immersed himself in the letters.
"I would like to inform my family about the inbreeding, the consequences…they won't much care for this whole part of the project." He told Hayden, "They won't accept Muggle borns into the family." That he believed wholeheartedly.
Hayden cocked his head to the side, "And if they entirely embraced the magical world and all it had to offer?" aware of his earlier derision of Muggle borns.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Orion said dryly, "You would think at the age of eleven, they would adapt, but they're already ruined by the Muggle world."
"I'm muggle raised, I wasn't ruined," Hayden pointed out, not at all offended.
Orion had nothing to say about that, for a few seconds, then, "You were raised aware of our world, taught what you needed to know."
Hayden had to bite his tongue, because that is what he had said, he couldn't exactly take it back. "And if I hadn't been? Would that have made everyone I come into contact with consider me as 'ruined'?" was that what every single pureblood at Hogwarts – minus the Weasleys – had thought of him? Or was he considered beneath them because he was a half-blood and muggle raised?
Orion froze, realizing the trap had been sprung and he couldn't avoid it. "You weren't," was the only retort Orion could think up. "So, this conversation is moot."
Hayden gave him a knowing look, as if the lack of real answer was amusing to him. "Not everyone can be blamed how they were raised, Orion. Those raised ignorant to their true world…its not fair for them to be judged so harshly. The same could be said for Muggle borns, but I understand your reasoning."
Orion had nothing to say, and so said nothing, continued to read through the letters. Luckily Hayden hadn't asked for much in the way of information, just name, age and normal information to confirm they were Muggle borns.
"We really don't need all these applicants; it might be too much to put into a book…but having all this evidence doesn't hurt…" Hayden changed the subject, leaving Orion to his thoughts. He got both sides only because he had been on the other side and happened to agree with the pureblood's views because he knew their fears come to pass. He didn't know how it came about but knew it would.
"It's a scientific find, the books tend to be on the thick side, you definitely should include it all." Orion shoved his thoughts aside, focusing on what was more important.
"Wouldn't that make people less likely to read it?" Hayden asked thoughtfully. "We sort of want to make it readable, understand and relatable."
"Dumbing it down is definitely the last thing you want to do," Orion declared seriously. "You lay out all the proof, and keep it that way, they'll want to see all the evidence, I wouldn't be surprised if they do their own research afterwards to confirm the findings as authentic and genuine."
Hayden nodded in understanding, "Alright, I'll definitely take your advice, I just wanted to make it readable to everyone."
"It will be, anyone interested in it will definitely read it regardless of how…boring it might be." pausing a little on 'boring' but not finding another word that might be applicable here. "It's not meant to entertain but inform."
"Good point, it's not like ancestry for dummies," Hayden said, laughing a little at the look on Orion's face, waving the enquiring look away. "Do you have a plan on how to sort the first half? Or should they be two individual books?"
"Now that you mention it…if we did combine them, it would be quite a thick book…" Orion conceded, "The subjects could be interlinked, but perhaps we would be better publishing them individually."
"Alright, so, you should start on that," Hayden said, "I'll focus on gathering the evidence for the second book."
"Big question…how are we going to publish them? I have contacts but I'm not sure if anyone will risk their companies by publishing it. At least for now…even if they see all the evidence themselves. They'll definitely get in touch with my family if they know I'm involved." Not that he was concerned about that, he intended to inform them of everything before it was put to publish.
He was aware that the purebloods were going to be furious with the information, he wasn't exactly blind to that. Although, they would need to accept it because it was nothing but the truth.
"How about Black-Peverell publishing?" Hayden asked slyly.
"Create our own publishing company?" Orion's eyes gleamed just as amused.
"It's not like we don't have the funds," Hayden pointed out, he had more than he'd ever need and technically half his funds had come from the Black estate which he'd inherited after the war.
Leaning back on his seat, he wasn't the Lord of the Black estate yet, but he received a very generous allowance to do with as he pleased. He didn't spend a lot, except for books he bought when it wasn't near Yule or his birthday. Which meant he had quite a lot saved, he could actually go into business with him.
It wasn't exactly the only thing he wanted, but he would never start something with someone when he couldn't give them more. At least not someone like Hayden who deserved more. It was odd, he'd never thought of someone else before, not like this. Perhaps it had something to do with growing up…or wanting more himself he didn't know.
"As for wanting to tell your parents, get everything in order and show them," Hayden shrugged, "Everything you need to prove it is there, any disbelief on their part is just stubbornness."
The next few hours were silent as they worked to get things done. Orion worked on an outlay for the 'book' while Hayden replied to everyone setting up a schedule for meetings to get the rituals done. It was going to take him at least three days to get through the ones already asking to take part.
"Ugh, my hand is aching, want to take a shot?" Hayden grumbled, flexing his hand, stretching it out.
"Almost done," Orion murmured, not paying much attention, as he affixed everything in order and writing bits and pieces into it. "I can't believe I'm actually going to try publishing a book…" it wasn't something he'd ever seen himself doing. It was just a rough draft, no words, just pictures in order with chapters scribbled in bits of parchment at the top like a bookmark.
"What would you like to do? I mean if you didn't have an estate to run and the Wizen and Wizengamot?" Hayden asked, giving Orion his full undivided attention.
Orion stared at Hayden looking slightly lost, "I…have no clue," he'd been raised knowing that's what he would do with his life. His education geared towards it. Nobody had ever asked him that, and he hadn't thought about it in all honesty. His entire life had been planned for him.
"You're not going to be doing this forever, one day you're going to pass it on to your son." Hayden said, "Might be a good time to have a thought on it."
"They retire, enjoy life, visit foreign countries, my grandparents didn't do anything after having a family and working on the estate for years before handing it over to my father." Orion admitted, "I doubt my father will either, they're already planning on going on cruises and visiting other countries."
"Why not during that time?" Hayden asked frowning in contemplation, "I mean don't you all go on holiday?"
"If they could, nine times out of ten, father had to return to the UK early due to court cases and the like." Orion told him, "It was usually just to France and Spain for a week. Something we haven't been able to do for years due to the war." Now things were getting back to normal, he couldn't blame his parents for wanting to go somewhere warm and relax. Reaching for the goblet finding himself parched.
It sometimes took nearly a decade for them to have children. It certainly had for his parents, who had a daughter first, which was useless, as far as for the Black Lordship went. Not that he thought she was useless, but Luce couldn't take on the Lordship, only Male heirs could. Four years later his parents had him. To their everlasting relief, they'd tried for a child a few more times but regretfully they miscarried twice.
"Maybe we could ask Tom if he wants to be part of it," Hayden said innocently enough, "The Gaunt family was penniless but from what I looked up the Riddle's were well off. It's a good way to get to know family properly."
Orion choked on the drink he'd just swallowed, coughing and sputtering eyes wide with shock.
Hayden quickly stood, muffling his amusement, smacking him on the back, "Are you alright?" he asked the wizard, "Was it something I said?"
"Uh…about that…" Orion murmured, all wild eyed shock.
There we go! another chapter! So will we convince Tom to claim the Riddle estate and get the money from it? (maybe he did in the original timeline) will Tom remain a Riddle or will Harry convince him to become a Gaunt or Slytherin if it's something he was determined to change? Maybe a different first name too? (I've never really liked changing names so much hard to remember and constantly making mistakes but Tom definitely hates his name...could he grow fond of it with someone (Hayden) convinced him that it's not the name that makes the wizard its the wizard that makes the name? R&R please!