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- Mermaid.
27th August 1993:
- 9 days after Diagon Alley.
- 8 days since starting to learn the Unforgivables.
- 4 days before the start of term at Hogwarts.
The midday of August the 27th found eight newly turned teenagers, all relaxing in the large Recreational Room of Riddle Manor. The eight friends, Cambions as they had named themselves, were spread out across the large room in different states of rest. They hung out together while their parents attended the mandatory Death Eater Meeting. Dion LeClair would finally emerge as Lord Thomas Dion Slytherin and be introduced to the Wizarding World as the true Lord of Slytherin. His children Hartford and Hermione would finally have his last name and the heirship of Slytherin. But in the time leading up to the announcement, the Inner Circle would be extremely busy ensuring everything was in place.
The eight teenagers had been part of the beginning of the meeting which was taking place in the Grand Ballroom on the first floor. It hadn't been as interesting as they had hoped when they had been invited, mostly just going over backstories and what to expect with them moving forward. In the end, all eight of them had been relieved to be told they didn't need to stay for the rest of it and were welcome to leave. So together they had quickly made their way up to the second floor and beelined for the Recreational Room in the east wing, just down the hallway from the bedrooms of Harry and Hermione, and the spare rooms.
The large room had four long bone-white walls, a high vantablack ceiling and a matching black carpet that was so soft it felt like it defied even magic. The wall directly in front of the door was the longest side, the opposite wall with the door was technically the same length but with the large double door, it lost some of the wall space. The first thing you would see when entering the room was the eight large and beautiful prints on the longest wall, they were in the middle of the wall hanging in black frames. Each frame depicted pictures of each of the eight moon phases and was charmed to light up when tapped with a wand. To the right of the room were three large tables spread out with just enough room between them to move around easily, all three were Muggle table games, Table Tennis, Pool, and Table Football. Then to the left was a child-friendly themed "pub" with a house elf kitchen, all set and ready to pour any cold drink the kids could think of, and even make hot and cold meals. If they wanted anything they just had to call Pippin or Cinnamon, and they would appear eager to help their chargers and friends.
The floor was littered with hefty beanbags for the children to sit in, all in garish bright neon colours that Harry had picked out with great amusement at his father's disgust. Currently, he was lounging in the green one, his entire body stretched out, with plenty of room on the large beanbag. He was lazily watching, with his head upside down, as Draco yelled orders at his Table Football players only to get frustrated when he remembered yet again it wasn't like wizard chess. Blaise cheered as he got a goal just as Draco had grabbed the rod of his goalie, groaning in defeat. He let out a snort of laughter as Draco started banging his head on the table corner in frustration, the blonde hated losing, well all of them did, but Draco usually took it harder. Especially to Blaise, Pansy and Harry, all three of whom were not exactly humble winners. Case in point, Blaise had proceeded to dance around the table singing "Draco sucks, Blaise rules. Draco sucks, Blaise rules''
"Why is he singing in the third person?" Daphne asked, baffled.
"Because he is a moron?" Pansy offered teasingly from where she was perched on the table tennis board waiting for her nail polish to dry. Suddenly she felt the world shift and yelped loudly when Blaise, while still dancing past her, reached out his hands and shoved her off the table directly onto the pink bean bag chair. Harry and Draco immediately burst into laughter as she sent a strong stinging hex only for Blaise to dodge it and it hit Theo. The poor brunette had been minding his business reading so deeply, and unaware of the world he screeched in fear and entered fight mode, throwing his book at Pansy's face in startled defence. All the teenagers fell into uncontrollable laughter together, it was chaos, but it was their chaos.
It took a while for them all to regain their breath and stability, but even when they had, the smiles had not left their lips, and now and again another snort or chuckle would escape. They took a moment to relax and eat, calling for Pippin and Cinnamon to order their lunch and moving their bean bags to form a circle with decent space for the food.
"Lunch is ready young Master and Mistress Riddle," Cinnamon bowed as Pippin started magicking the food from the food trolley, in front of their charges and friends.
"Fish with lemon and vinegar with chips slathered in gravy, tomato sauce and mayonnaise Master Harry," Pippin grinned as the boy licked his lips.
"Fish and chips with salt, pepper and vinegar," Cinnamon moved to help as well, taking the second dish to Pansy.
"Bangers and mash with onion gravy and mint peas," Pippin said smiling at Blaise who sighed happily and immediately stuck his face close to the plate and inhaled deeply.
"Pot roast with potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, peas and gravy," Pippin laid almost three identical plates in front of Daphne, Hermione and Draco. But Daphne didn't have carrots or Brussels sprouts and instead had extra mint peas. Hermione had everything, but her peas were plain instead of mint. Draco didn't have broccoli, it is one of the few things he refused to eat, and he had mint peas like Daphne with extra carrots.
"Steak and Kidney pie, no onions," Cinnamon smiled as Theo thanked her. Such a sweet boy, and a very good soul mate for Cinnamon's Mistress Hermione.
"Two loaded jacket potatoes with mushrooms, cheese, crispy fried onions, baked beans, jalapenos, and broccoli," Pippin handed off the last plate to a happy Luna who was wiggling side to side in joy. The two elves left a mixture of different fizzy pops for drinks in the middle.
"Thank you, Pippin."
"Thank you, Cinnamon"
"Thank you," the eight voices all blended but the two elves could tell what they were saying and smiled at the warmth and happiness in front of them.
"If youse be needings anything, youse be callin' us," Pippin said sternly before popping away with Cinnamon to another cacophonous of the children thanking them.
"Merlin's beard, those two go all out for just lunch," Blaise groaned obscenely as he took his first bite.
"You do know we don't eat like this every day right?" Harry laughed, "Not for lunch anyway. The Riddle and Black elves just adore hosting and so when you guys and guests are here, every elf we have goes big."
"Yesterday we just had leftover dinner for lunch." Hermione nodded,
"Mally makes the best roast chicken sandwiches." Harry grinned, emphasising the word best as he mentioned the Head of the Riddle Kitchen elves. The children didn't talk much as they ate eagerly, enjoying the flavours exploding in their mouths. The quietness didn't last long though, the teens scoffing the food down quickly and methodically, before long they were all lounged out in their bean bags happy with stuffed stomachs.
"So only four days before we go back to Hogwarts," Daphne sighed, "are any of you ready?"
"Not really," Daphne groaned, "this summer went way too fast, and it took me way too long to do the summer homework this year. I just couldn't motivate myself with this heat this year."
"Tell me about it," Blaise nodded, "I mean don't get me wrong, I loved spending the three weeks on holiday in France with Dad's side of the family. But it just wasn't the same after the last few years spending all year at Hogwarts and then holidaying together,"
"You didn't mention the homework," Daphne teased Blaise as the dark-skinned boy just grinned roguishly,
"I can do it on the Hogwarts Express," he shrugged, laughing at Theo and Hermione's identical looks of horror at the idea.
"Absolutely not!" Hermione shook her head, brown curls flying wildly. "Has anyone else left it to the last minute?" She groaned as Harry, Draco and Pansy all raised their hands.
"I've done it all but the extra Potions reading," Luna admitted.
"To the library!" Hermione ordered with Theo leaping up so he could offer her his hand before she moved. She grinned when he hauled her up easily and kissed her hand, the grin turning into a smirk as the others groaned at her orders and muttered about mutiny and evil nerds but still, they all got up and the others started calling for their private Nanny elves to bring all their homework over from their homes. They walked down the halls of Riddle Manor as, what their Uncles Rabastan and Barty affectionately called, the Swarm.
The next three hours passed relatively quickly for the group of friends as they worked together to finish their summer homework. Thankfully the Riddle Manor had a large library, and in the middle of the room was a round table big enough to fit them all. Currently, the table was covered in open books, long pieces of parchment, full inkwells and quills.
"Where did the book on Charms go?" Blaise groaned as he rubbed his eyes. He only had one more paragraph on the Disarming Charm left to go. Why Professor Flitwick had expected half a foot on each of the Charms they had learnt the year before was beyond Blaise's understanding. He thought it was crazy to assign homework during the summer at all.
"Here," Draco said, handing the heavy tome over Luna's head towards Blaise without taking his grey eyes off his Potions essay.
"Fuck" Blaise grunted as he almost dropped the book on Luna's head unprepared for how heavy it was. Thank Merlin for Luna's gift as the girl slouched just the right amount of space to avoid the book as Blaise steadied himself.
"Done!" Harry shouted startling Theo out of his concentrated reading as Harry slammed the book in front of him shut and signed his name on the parchment with a flourish.
"Summer homework should be illegal," Blaise bemoaned, he was writing as quickly as he could to get it all over and done with.
"Maybe Father can bring it up at the next Wizengamont meeting," Harry nodded hopefully as Hermione snorted.
"Yeah because that will happen," she laughed with an eye roll.
"We can dream," Harry sighed as he leant forward, hands interlocking with each other on the table, as he rested his head on them.
"LUNA!" Hermione's panicked cry had the others snapping their heads to look at the petite blonde in worry. She had gone stock still, eyes wide open, Blaise and Draco threw their arms out, catching her as she fell backwards. If not for their quidditch reflexes she would have hit the floor hard. Together Blaise and Draco gently laid her down on the carpet, as everyone ran around the table to reach them.
"Is it a sight vision?" Pansy asked as she took in Luna's flushed skin and glazed eyes, praying it was and not a combination vision.
There are three main types of Visions and Prophecies. Type one, the most common, and also the standard expectation of Visions is called a Prophecy, or Spoken Vision. Luna's eyes would glaze over, her sight going black and she would hear whispers faintly. The voice never really sounded like a person, but the words would flow into her. She would be compelled to repeat the words out loud, unable to control herself until it was over. Before learning Occlumency she would never remember these visions, always waking up out of the daze unaware of what had happened. Once she had mastered Occlumency, she was able to create a location inside her safety walls to store these moments and could revisit each spoken Prophecy whenever she wanted.
The second type was Visions, specifically Sight Visions, where the real world would fade away from sight and she would see things that could be happening as she saw it before her, be of what is to come in the future, or like two memorable moments, she could see things from the past that were suddenly relevant to what could happen soon.
The third type was the worst, Combination Visions they were called, also known as Sense Deprivation. She would see it happening like Sight Visions, but she could also hear the voice and would speak what it was saying aloud, and she would also feel, smell and even sometimes taste a great deal of what was happening in the Vision. These types had so far always resulted in seizures and left her weakened and sore for days. Thankfully they were also the rarest. She had only ever had four in her lifetime. The first was the most traumatic, being of her Mother's death, she had been nine and she hadn't remembered the Vision at all, until a week later when it came true in front of her.
"She isn't seizing," Theo noted as he looked over her wide but unseeing eyes.
"She is coming out of it," Draco grinned in relief as Luna's blue eyes regained their colour, blinking away the fog.
"Take it easy," Daphne said softly as Luna tried to sit up, catching herself on Blaise's lap when she couldn't hold her weight with her arms.
"Where is your family tree?" Luna asked Harry and Hermione with a pant, each word accompanied by a sharp inhale as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Huh?" Harry asked blankly,
"Luna stop," Theo cried as she tried to yet again climb up to her feet, only to stumble backwards into Pansy who immediately gripped the small blonde's arms and steadied her.
"I need to find it," Luna mumbled, "It can't be true, I need to see it. Where is it?" Harry shared a look with Hermione, they knew their friend, and if she was this determined, it was something serious.
"We can take you there," Hermione said, Luna nodding sagely, "but only if you take a breath and wait for the vision effects to pass."
"Yes, yeah, okay," Luna nodded, stumbling after yet again trying to walk on her own. Thankfully Blaise had managed to shove one of the small reading armchairs directly behind Luna and Theo wasted no time to push her gently backwards into it.
"Oh it's so soft," Luna whispered with a grin, running her hands over the material covering the arms of the chair.
"Cinnamon," Hermione called smiling when her nanny elf appeared, "can you get Luna cold water with cucumber, lemon, ice and a teaspoon of sugar." Hermione rattled off Luna's order. It was the same drink Luna's Mother used to have after a vision herself, and also when she was pregnant with Luna. Blaise, Harry and Pansy pulled a face behind Luna at the drink, as they usually did when she drank it. It was not a concoction they enjoyed.
It didn't take long for Cinnamon to reappear with the drink, handing it off to Luna the small elf patted her knee fondly before popping away after making sure Hermione knew to call her if "Miss Little Seer" needed anything else.
"How are you doing?" Draco asked as Luna sipped on the last of her drink six minutes later.
"Better," she sighed with a smile. "I think I am okay now,"
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Blaise checked, but the jokester hid the two fingers up behind his other hand.
"Two," Luna replied with a smirk, "at least make it difficult by using a thumb," she taunted. For a moment it was lighthearted laughter between the group before they sobered up and caught their breath.
"So, you said you needed to see the family tree?" Hermione prompted her, Luna nodded as she stood up to stand with her friends. "What was shown to you?"
"I've never really had a sight vision I haven't believed before," Luna started, biting her lip as they walked out of the library. Everyone waiting for her to continue from what seemed like a random segue, but they knew from experience there was a reason for it.
"But this one, it could change so much of what we know. And if the vision is wrong, and I say something before checking it. It could destroy lives." she paused before opening her mouth again, "Although, if it is true, it could still destroy lives, or save them." she whispered. Her friends all shared wide-eyed glances. What could she have seen?
"Luna, has a vision ever been wrong before?" Blaise asked as Harry and Hermione led them down the grand staircase towards the first floor.
"Sort of, but not really," Luna hummed, "A vision has never outright been wrong, but when some things are shown, I can usually feel if it is an absolute or if it will only happen if I don't change the course."
"So what makes you think this one is wrong?" Theo asked frowning, "If you can feel it."
"This was different," Luna said, her lips twitching as she thought deeply about how to explain it. "It wasn't a vision of what could happen, or what will happen. It was more a vision of information that we need."
"Well that's helpful," Draco snorted sarcastically, "why can't they just be straightforward."
"Because that would make our lives too easy," Blaise snarked.
"Here we are," Hermione interrupted before Draco and Blaise could devolve into another one of their arguments. She reached her hand out to open the heavy dark wooden door, she grunted lightly when the door knob stuck a bit and she applied more pressure.
"Damn door," she muttered when it finally opened, only to stick halfway.
"This room hasn't been very loved," Daphne commented as they entered the room, single file due to the door not opening any further. Harry waved his wand activating the floating lanterns set up around the room, their glow illuminating the entire room.
"Whoa," Blaise said as the lantern lights revealed the massive brown tree which was painted on and stretched out over the four walls, only breaking apart at the door. Each branch of the tree led to a small family, and then among the sticks, leaves and flowers were painted portraits of the family members. It was magically created, the portraits aged with the family members, and when new members were born or died the tree would shift to reflect it.
"It's beautiful," Theo breathed, as he took in the intricate details. The walls were Emerald Green, the tree and its branches a Sienna brown, the flowers were bright pink peonies, symbolising Honor, Prosperity and Wealth. The portraits of the many different family members had their names in gold cursive writing under each of them along with their birth and when applicable their death dates.
"I found you two," Pansy called with a grin pointing out the two portraits side by side, Hermione Cassiopeia Riddle, and Hartford Thomas Riddle. Luna came over to trace their names, her eyes glazing slightly as she sucked in a breath. It was not enough to be a full Vision, but enough that her friends all took a step closer to her.
"These will change," She whispered, only just loud enough that they could hear her. "Once our Lord is recognized, so will you be. The true Heirs of Slytherin."
"Merlin's Ballsack," Blaise gaped, dodging a disgusted Daphne's slap. "Are you saying when he takes his seat in the Wizengamot, Magic will accept them as Slytherins? Just like that?"
"Yes," Luna nodded, "It is not only their birthright but their destiny."
"So. No pressure right?" Harry joked Hermione rolled her eyes at her Brother, but he could see the weight on her shoulders just like his own.
"Is this what you saw?" She asked, turning from Harry to Luna.
"No," She shook her head, "this I saw many years ago when we first met. I knew we would be family and by your side, loyal, is where I am supposed to be."
"So what are we doing here?" Draco asked, not rudely but curiously.
"How do you look like a ponce in every portrait and photo I have ever seen?" Blaise asked before Luna could answer. The dark-skinned boy laughed as he pointed at Draco's name and face across from Harry and Hermione's.
"I do not," Draco sniffed, offended, tilting his nose up and looking away from his friend.
"Look!" Pansy cackled, "It's that pose!"
"Oh shut up," Draco huffed, turning his back to them, he would come up with a good comeback later, for now, "Luna?" he prompted, ignoring Blaise and Pansy giggling behind him.
They all watched as Luna's hand was resting on Cassiopeia Dorothy Riddle née Black connected to her was Tom Marvolo Riddle with Harry and Hermione below the couple connected by gold threads wrapped branches. Luna traced Cassiopeia's name once more before moving. Her delicate pale hand went across the tree branches to the left, her manicured and pink-painted fingers smoothed over the sisters. Passing Narcissa Odette Malfoy née Black who was connected to Lucius Abraxas Malfoy and Draconis Lucius Malfoy below them. Then her fingers danced over Andromeda Albireo Tonks née Black, just like her sisters she was connected to her husband, Edward Robert Tonks, and their daughter Nymphadora Swanhilde Tonks below them, the portrait currently had her signature pink hair. Then finally Luna stopped at Bellatrix Deneb Lestrange née Black, where she was connected to her soulmate and husband, Rodolphus Reinhard Lestrange. Everyone watched, completely transfixed as Luna circled the name, tears coming to her eyes as she traced the branches down, to a single name below Bellatrix and Rodolphus. The silence the room was suddenly plunged into was heavy, not even the sounds of breathing were heard as they all just stared in horror at the name in gold with an up-to-date portrait.
Rigel Cygnus Lestrange.
Born: 14th April 1980.
"Where's his death date?" Harry finally choked out. The friends all shared a look of grief and fear.
"Are these things ever wrong?" Draco asked Hermione and Theo desperately, grey eyes wide in shock.
"No," They chorused, Hermione, shaking her head in answer, and disbelief, before continuing,
"Family trees like this are attached to our families' magical core signatures. Rigel didn't die in 1980. Our cousin is alive."
HAHAHAHAHA I had fun leaving it there ? ﾟﾤﾣ?