Chapter 7 - Commandeering
The trio finally left the library and went back to the living room. They continued to talk about the expectations of the courtship, the proper behaviour of being a Black and a Gaunt, that conversation earned many eye-rolls and sneers from both Hermione and Thomas.
They eventually went back on track. "Right, so we're sure Malfoy is behind Voldemort?" Alphard asked to confirm and to appease his own doubts about the whole thing.
"What if Abraxas is Voldemort himself? Have they ever been seen at the same time Hermione?" Thomas asked.
Hermione paused, lost in memories and thoughts, trying to remember what she knew of the man, "I can't be sure. I've never heard of Abraxas being in battle or anything similar to that. I know he died of dragonpox at some point, long before the 1990, but I don't really know much more than that."
"Maybe he faked his death? At some point between now and the early seventies, so he could become Voldemort?" Alphard wondered.
"Lucius is born sometime in the next 5 years, so it would be after and I'm fairly sure Lucius knew his father, enough at least to be partially raised by him. Lucius started Hogwarts around 1965 so we can imagine he would fake his death around 1970 to be reborn at Voldemort quickly after.
I don't know if he willingly waited for his Heir to be at Hogwarts and ready to take over as Head of family or if he waited for another reason... How long would someone of Malfoy power need to break into your diary?"
"Without being a curse-breaker and without speaking parseltongue, at least a good few years. I was arrogant in my on my power at that age but I did add parseltongue privacy charms to it and as far as I am aware, no one else speaks parseltongue, it's a Slytherin trait passed down the Gaunt line." Thomas told her with a frown.
"It is, you're right. And the Gaunt line is almost a straight line with all the inbreeding so we can be sure there's no one else out there with the ability, at least in Britain but I don't really know if it's restricted to something Slytherin mastered himself or if someone else abroad has the ability as well? Malfoy could need the years to find that person."
"Either way, he needs the diary, he makes an horcrux out of it and seem to base a lot of the Voldemort persona on it..." Alphard trailed off, pondering something until he sat up with a gasp, "What about a golem?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked with wide eyes.
"A golem, infused with everything in that diary, a dark ritual to give him the semblance of a soul, at least enough to be able to make horcruxes... You said Voldemort came out of his rebirth ritual looking like a snake right? That shouldn't have happened to a normal wizard, even with the little soul he would have left. A golem would have absorbed the snake venom they used differently, hence his features."
They all looked at each other, unblinking, trying to come up with a reason that this wasn't true but it dawned on them on much it made sense. Malfoy was much too vain to fake his own death and come up with a different one, but to create a golem and be his puppet master made a lot more sense.
"It also explains the few times I've hard Voldemort being described during the first war, always as handsome and charismatic but with dark hair, clearly an older Thomas.
Lucius was wandless towards the end of the war, a prisoner in his own home under the reign of Voldemort, Abraxas was long dead. He either never told his son who Voldemort really was or they completely lost control of him." Hermione told them.
"If he died as young as you seem to think, it would made sense he didn't tell his son, especially if he truly died of dragonpox, likely didn't have the foresight. So the time before Voldemort appears is very much tied to how long they need to break into the diary, create the golem and all the other nasty things they're planning on." Thomas concluded.
Alphard suddenly smiled triumphantly, "That's actually perfect! They clearly need the diary, so if we steal it and destroy it, they can't make the golem!"
Hermione pursued her lips at that, "That's a good first step and we definitely should, I assume it's at Malfoy Manor so we need a plan to break into the place.
However, losing the diary doesn't mean they won't come up with something else and we do need to stop Abraxas, he's clearly the ring-leader, his son was Voldemort's right-hand man for a long time too. Abraxas needs to be stopped, permanently." she ended her statement with a look daring them to contradict her.
"How many die in the timeline if he dies now?" Alphard asked, trying to make her see the bigger picture.
"Lucius and Draco, I believe he had a son recently so also that one. Alphard, you're talking 3 people, out of thousands we would save if we avoid the war he's intent on waging." she persevered.
Alphard hummed at that, not agreeing but seeing her point. Thomas was simply amused, he was convinced Abraxas would die and he couldn't wait.
"I'll leave you to it, let's think on a plan to break into Malfoy Manor first and steal back the diary. I'll see you on Saturday night, might take advantage of a guest bedroom too, Walburga is breathing down my neck about settling down and I do not want to get close to that harpy." he shuddered, and left the room to floo back home.
"He wasn't married in my time, he doesn't want to get married at all?"
"Alphard is very much into men, love." Thomas said with a fond smile.
Hermione's eyebrows crunched together at that, "So? Can't he get married to a man then?"
Thomas chuckled, "You are a study in contradictions, I love it. Technically he is allowed to marry a man should he meet one he wants to commit to, however, as a Black son he is supposed to have an heir, even if he'll never be Lord Black himself. Walburga, his father, they would all be fine if he had a male lover on the side, but only if he marries a woman and she has at least one child. If he marries a man, he'll be disowned immediately for betraying the future of the family or such rot... I can't even imagine what would happen if he married a man that wasn't an acceptable pureblood."
Hermione's eyes got very dark and glowy and he swore he could see flames dancing, "Well maybe some more people need to die then."
At that declaration, Thomas picked her up and carried her bridal style to his own room, she didn't protest and welcomed it instead. His room was much darker than her own, the bed was the same metallic style, but the walls were painted a dark forest green and only a few suspended candles lit the space. He laid her down on the bed, and went to her side, caressing her hips and kissing her softly. "I don't want to go too far, but I don't want to be parted from you anymore." he murmured between kisses, she did not respond but simply kissed him back and they both undressed each other slowly. After a while, they were both in naked under his cover, exploring each other's bodies in a delicate dance without crossing the unsaid boundary.
At her yawn, Thomas turned her so her back was against his chest, "Sleep love."
The next few days were spent in quiet mornings while Thomas went to work after a few kisses and they retreated to the library where Hermione had conjured a loveseat in dark green velvet, for them to enjoy while they read together. There was an unspoken agreement to not make plans without Alphard so they simply researched in the meantime and continued to talk about each others' lives. Since that Tuesday, they spent every night together, without going further but enjoying the closeness, both having craved companionship for so long.
"What do you want to do after?" Thomas asked her one quiet evening.
"After?" she murmured back without looking back from her book, with a fond smile he elaborated, "After the situation with Malfoy is taken care of, I will likely start going to the Wizengamot but what about you?"
That broke her focus and she looked up, biting her lip, "I don't know actually, I don't really want to go back to the Department of Mysteries, they could likely detect I'm not from this time originally and that's not a risk I want to take... Honestly the entire Ministry is out until we can clean it up and I don't have any of my OWLs or NEWTs here to back up any applications... A private researcher perhaps? A problem-solver type of situation?"
He hummed, "Yes I could see that working for you, when we marry you will gain the Lady Gaunt title and will gain access to functions and events of the elite." he said with a smirk.
"Do you think Walburga goes to those?"
"Probably yes, why?"
"I could poison her tea. After Sirius and Regulus are born of course, they could have so much better lives without her."
"I love when you talk murder love, but they would still have Orion."
Hermione pouted and went back to her book.
On Friday evening, Hermione broke the quiet "I don't want to stop at Malfoy, with you on the Wizengamot we can start working on the ministry clean-up, and then there's Hogwarts. We need to make sure Dumbledore never becomes Headmaster, from what I've read in your Hogwarts books, he changed a lot and not in a good way. Besides, we need to change things to assimilate muggle-raised witches and wizards better and Dumbledore is not the right person for that type of changes, he pretends to be fair and unprejudiced but his father went to Azkaban for attacking Muggles and he himself was in agreement with Grindelwald not that long ago."
Thomas nodded, he had similar ideas and aspirations, "One revolution at a time love, but yes. We do need someone to become Headmaster though, Dippet is too old to last much longer."
"Minerva McGonagall would be the better choice, she finished her apprenticeship with Dumbledore years ago, but we will need a reason to oust Dumbledore from Hogwarts altogether for her to stand a chance."
"Poison?" Thomas asked nonchalantly.
"I think we need to repeat history, or well future history, and make him cross paths with the cursed resurrection stone. He was able to last longer due to his Potions Professor then but he won't have that type of help now and will die quickly, due to his own greed with the Deathly Hallow and guilt for his sister."
"That's a good plan, but where are we supposed to find that stone? It's a fable." Thomas retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"Did you, perchance, stole the ring Morfin Gaunt was wearing when you framed him?"
Thomas' eyes widened and his mouth hung open for a couple of seconds, "That's the resurrection stone?!"
Hermione nodded, "Yes it is. Before we curse it and put it on Dumbledore's path, you can use to talk to Merope if you want. It only shows a shadow but you could still have closure."
"It's hidden in my study, I'll do that, just once and then we take Dumbledore down with it, while making sure McGonagall is primed for the Headmistress position. It will have to be after Malfoy, he's the Head of the Board of Governors now."
Saturday evening saw Alphard coming back to Riddle Manor with blueprints under his arm, "Hello lovebirds, I have the magical blueprints of Malfoy Manor for us to peruse." he ended his introduction with a bow and placed the blueprints on the coffee table.
They spent the next couple of hours trying to find a way in, when Hermione blurted out "What about an elf? Does the Manor prevents an elf from coming inside?"
That gave both wizards pause, "No, there's no wards against a non-Malfoy elf preventing them from going there, but you don't have one as far as I know."
"Yes, but you do, don't you? Elves can live centuries and Godric knows he was already old then, can you give orders to Kreacher?"
Alphard's eyes bugged out of his head for a moment, "Kreacher! You've met that old bugger?!"
Hermione breathed a few times to remain calm, "Yes I have, he had clearly been mistreated his whole life and he just needed some fucking love!" Thomas cut in before she could further, "Don't Alphie, she has a thing about elves, better not rile her up, she broke a window the other day."
"Right. Kreacher is a Black elf so his main master would be Sirius right now, and even though I can order him, Sirius and then Arcturus later on can order him to talk about what he did, so if we do this it needs to be done well to prevent an elf from outing our activities."
Hermione stood up and went to the 4W board, wiped what Alphard had written down and started a new list:
Kreacher
- Orders from Alphard
- To steal the book, likely hidden in the master study or the library
- Steal while invisible
- Deliver knockout gas to avoid issues when entering with a bubble-head charm on Kreacher beforehand
- Order Kreacher to sign a tied-tongue parchment to prevent future babbling, direct tied-tongue curse?
Alphard was looking at the list with a frown, wondering if it would work, "The curse doesn't work directly, but if he signed a parchment it could and I can order him to. We will need to practice the bubble-head charm to make sure it holds. Where are we getting knockout gas though? There's no spell for it as far as I know."
"On a military base of course, it doesn't have to be magical to work." Hermione said with a smirk.
"I'll draw an exact replica of the diary to make sure he can find it, Hermione will break into a military base, and create the cursed parchment and you Alphie you make sure the charm holds. Once we have confirmation on all this, Alphie will meet Kreacher alone to make him sign the parchment and order him."
"We also need to create a replica of the diary, to make sure it's not noticeable at first glance that the real thing is gone." Hermione added, and Thomas nodded "I'll do that alongside the drawing."
Alphard had a wide smile and clapped his hands "Looks like we have a plan!"
"And afterwards we'll kill Malfoy" Thomas said in a whisper to Hermione.