(TW: Some torture here.)

Some Bridges are Better of Burning, Saint Chaos

Revenge travels in strange lines
Just like the way I'm walking now
And lately I'm like wildfire
And you're just a choke wire I found out

Look where the madness brought us
All of the troubled waters
Tell me now if all the danger was worth it
You'll be the pointless martyr
And I'll be the firestarter
Some bridges are better off burning

Don't let the flames go out
Let's burn it down, down
Don't let the flames go out
I'm the jury, I'm the judge, my verdict
Some bridges are better off burning


Reed and Ginny left when the other students began returning from Hogsmeade; Ginny said she'd be back with Eris and Avalon.

After what Reed had shown him, he didn't feel like talking to anyone else. He was far more interested in deconstructing and recovering, far less invested in speaking to the necromancers than he had been when he first agreed, which had been very little to start.

Tom had been mostly silent, monitoring his thoughts and Harry's, watching like a hawk for any sign that he might go anywhere near the small group of holes he'd found in his head, admonishing him when he did, making it all the more difficult to stay away.

'Is it really that bad?' He wondered again, watching the map for Ginny's return.

'Harry, stop being deliberately moronic. If we want to keep things from him, we need somewhere to put them. If you examine this… There would be several issues.'

'You're being so vague! Stop being vague!'

'You are not ready. If you examine this, the odds are that you will deconstruct it. Do you want the advantage or the knowledge, Harry.'

'…Will the knowledge give me an advantage?'

'Absolutely not.'

'That was a fast response; why are you so sure?'

Instead of answering, Tom turned his attention to Ginny, Eris, and Avalon on the map in the defence tower and headed up his stairs.

'Ironwood is still free and just out there, right?' Harry wondered.

'Yes.'

'Do you think the Dark Lord knows where he is?'

'I don't know.'

He gnawed his lip and narrowed his eyes before rolling off his bed and opening the doors without glancing at them. He tucked the map in one of his chests and sat down in an armchair, still not looking at the doors or the necromancers, though he could see them from the corner of his eye.

"Sit," Tom said, forcing Harry's eyes to Eris to watch him do as he was told.

He scowled as he did, Avalon taking the seat next to him, Ginny sitting beside Harry and tucking her legs up to her chest, already chewing her thumb.

Harry didn't say anything, waited to see how Eris would screw it up.

Avalon crossed her arms and glared at him and Eris, her eyes flicking back and forth. "Well?"

Eris' lips twitched as she spoke, not taking his glare away from Harry. "I should not have put rats in my own tent," he eventually spat.

Ginny threw her legs off her armchair and leaned forward. "My brother. Ron. Was Harry's best friend. They met in their first year, and it was instant the way Ron told it. Harry bought the whole trolley of food on the train, and they were hardly ever apart, aside from the holidays. In their second year, Harry came to the Burrow for the first time… Scared me half to death because-" she laughed and it was strangled by a sob, "Because the Boy Who Lived was in my dining room, at the table with my family, at home like he was another brother. And he was. He is."

She'd been staring at the tea set on the coffee table between them, but she looked up at Harry and grabbed his knee when she saw the tears in his eyes.

"Last year… In June, Ron died in the Ministry of Magic. I reanimated him. Accidentally." She glanced at Eris, then at Avalon.

Harry did the same and watched their confusion become comprehension, Avalon covering her mouth with her hand, Eris halfway to standing, though it wasn't clear where he was going.

"Merde, Ginny, that… Eris, everyone thinks he killed him," Avalon pointed at Harry.

"Why?" He asked. "Why would you let them think that?"

"To protect her. Your family know now, Ginny. You haven't acknowledged it-" Harry said.

"Don't, that's not what we're talking about," she interrupted him, shushing with her hand, "The point is that, so what? You heard a few private conversations in your tent. You think it defines him, but it's so much more than that."

"Cedrum said that you can keep a secret. How is your Occlumency?" Tom asked Eris, who finally sat back, suspicious.

"Above average."

"And you?" He asked Avalon.

"Better than his, comme toujour."

"Sans aucun doute," Tom said, and Eris glared.

"When the Dark Lord attempted to kill Harry as a baby, he instead perpetuated a prophecy."

He winced at Tom's sudden one-eighty, and so did Ginny.

Avalon was the only one confused about him referring to himself in the third person.

"Our souls were fractured. We each lost a piece—a Horcrux. By that time, Voldemort had created six Horcruxes to obtain immortality. In doing so, he permanently altered his mental state and his capacity to feel."

Avalon, in particular, seemed to want to interrupt, her mouth opening and closing as she frowned between the three of them.

"The night Ron died, Harry woke the Dark Lord's Horcrux. Soon after, he was taken to Voldemort and sworn to an Unbreakable Vow. Unable to speak of the Horcrux or any further meetings with him or his followers in exchange for the safety of Hogwarts students. When the Vow was made, Harry woke the Horcrux in the Dark Lord's head."

"I'm sorry, why are you talking like that? You're Harry? I've missed something, non?"

"No. That's the Horcrux," Eris said.

"Tom," Ginny corrected.

"…In doing so, restoring Voldemort's capacity to feel-"

"What!" Avalon shot out of her seat and sat down again. "Eris! This is what you found out? You absolute putain it is a wonder you aren't dead."

"An appropriate response," Tom said. "It restored his mind. Harry's Horcrux. Without it, without continued… Monitoring, he loses it all over again. As it stands, he holds the majority share of Europe, with his influence spreading like wildfire. To keep Ginevra— and everyone else—safe, she must remain a student of Hogwarts for as long as possible, and we must bow to him."

"His Vow. Explain it to me," Eris demanded.

Ginny seemed nervous, but Tom smiled.

"He cannot personally harm a student of Hogwarts, with the exception of any self-proclaimed Order of the Phoenix members, and Harry. You understand where this explanation stops." Tom said the last part directly to Eris, referring to the rest of what he'd discovered in the tent.

"How are speaking about the Horcrux under a Vow?" Eris asked.

"We were released from the Vow the day of the Wizengamot trial."

"So, you made many mistakes in a row. Is that what you're telling me?" Eris laughed, and Avalon backhanded him in the forehead.

"Yeah, pretty much," Harry said.

"Are you this thick?" Avalon hissed, "You think we'd be here if these things didn't happen? Open your stupid eyes."

"Is that true?" He asked.

"That is what I just finished saying," Tom said.

He considered Harry for a long moment, his eyes trailing to Ginny a few times, before he said, "I still don't like you."

"Mutual," Harry and Tom spoke at the same time.

Ginny opened her mouth, but Tom held up a hand, "I do not need to like him to tolerate him. I am sure he understands what I will do if this conversation leaves this room."

"…So, you didn't learn French in summer school?" Avalon asked, and Ginny guffawed, holding her stomach until she was snorting.

"I suppose it is only fair now that you have told us everything that we should do the same," Avalon said, looking pointedly at Eris once Ginny had stopped laughing.

"I discovered what I was at my cousin's funeral. He was nine; I was ten. Émilien. He was a sickly child, but he and I didn't see it that way. My family found out that day, as well. It was a closed casket, but he climbed out. I didn't realise I was doing it. Horrified me. My father knew, though, and he quickly contacted Cedrum." She spoke rapidly, her accent making it difficult to keep her pace. "He could have been anyone, this stranger that was only spoken about behind closed doors. But he came to our Château, and my family left. Best to pretend you never had a daughter nor lived at that address when she raises the dead, I suppose."

"I'm so sorry," Ginny said.

"Don't be. Cedrum is more of a father to me than that man ever was. My family were… Let's just say I prefer this. I'm glad I made Émilien climb out of his pine box in front of his bitch mother. If not, I'd still be there." She pinched Eris' arm, and he flinched.

"I spent the first five years of my life with my mother. I never knew my father. Neither, I suppose, did she because she had a heart attack when she discovered I had magic," he spoke as though he was reading a grocery list.

"You have to tell them how," Avalon scolded.

Eris rolled his eyes, "Rats. About thirty of them. Dead in our root cellar. She knew they were dead because she poisoned them. She caught me down there. I was twelve when Cedrum found me."

"You're skipping everything."

His eyes bulged, and he clenched his fists, "I was in an orphanage, where they also found me with rats. Word somehow found its way to Widrich even though it was a Muggle orphanage."

"He's lucky it didn't find its way to the authorities first. Seven years playing with fire," Avalon said, still frowning at Eris. "He's still skipping most of it."

"Did… Your mum die?" Ginny asked.

Eris shook his head. "Not then. She recovered. She gave me up."

"Oh." She scowled at the table.


They'd headed to an early dinner, the sun beginning to set overhead in the Great Hall. The rest of the Slytherins, as well as Reed, Pollux, and Ruby, had found them either as they left the Room of Requirement or in the hall.

"Tell Cassiopeia I'll see Percy," Ginny whispered beside him, mostly drowned out by Pansy and Ruby, locked in an animated gossip about the new Vivariums. He nodded.

Harry noticed Hermione, Seamus, and Lavender missing from the Gryffindor table.

Draco was looking at him, and when he met the blonde's eyes, his eyebrows shot up, and he jerked his head to the staff table.

"Meeting tonight," he said when Harry didn't understand his cryptic face message. "Small."

He looked down at his Nurmengard gear and shrugged.

The Dark Lord was missing from the head table, but he didn't think that was particularly out of the ordinary. Cassiopeia wouldn't yet be awake. Lydia was also absent. The rest of the staff were seated, Snape included—the man trying to drill holes in Harry's head from a distance.

Eris and Avalon were next to Ginny, on the same side of the table as he was, so he couldn't easily look at either of them.

'Do you think telling them everything was a good idea?' He wondered.

'It was an inevitability. You will not leave Ginny; she will not leave them. A continued rift would have been problematic. I chose to take control of it.'

Harry frowned but let it go, feeling like he had too many things to contemplate. As though he'd summoned the problem, Voldemort requested access to their mind. Tom scrambled to hide everything where he wouldn't allow Harry to go while he panicked, certain that somehow the Dark Lord would sense something was off as they let him in.

'Malfoy Manor. Come alone.'

His Dark Mark burned as he was commanded, making his stomach jump and his cheeks flush. Thankfully Voldemort didn't stay to watch the aftermath of his influence, gone as soon as he'd spoken.

He cleared his throat twice as he stood up, claiming that he'd left something in his room and that he'd be right back. He slipped out into the viaduct courtyard with four Death Eaters. He fought the familiar hyperventilation—the image of Dumbledore breaking above the stones he walked on seared in his eyelids, clearly visible each time he blinked. He ran for the boathouse stairs, jogging down the uneven descent until he reached the dock and Disapparated without telling his entourage his destination.

He jogged into the wards and then passed the gates. Narcissa was waiting for him at the massive entryway, open doors spilling firelight onto the white gravel.

"Good evening, Harry."

"Good evening, Narcissa," Tom repeated as she took him into the foyer.

She didn't say another word as she walked with him through the manor to the usual dining room. She pushed the doors open but didn't follow. She nodded and smiled, gesturing him in, so he went.

Again, Seamus, Lavender, and Hermione were against the far wall. This time, they were locked under the solid, soundproof wards, not bound. Hermione glared through them at him. Lavender sat on the floor, sobbing into her hands. Finnigan beat his fists into the magic as though it would make a difference.

The Dark Lord sat at the head of the table, concealed, with Nagini on the wood beside him, her drawing book on her lap, grinning at Harry. He fought the urge to smile back and instead took the seat that Voldemort pointed to, again on his right.

He wanted to question but knew better, though he couldn't stop the way he looked at Nagini, begging for answers with his face. She shrugged one shoulder and returned to her book, still smiling.

'Ask.' Tom thought.

'What?'

'Ask him. In Parseltongue.'

'What?'

'Ask him what they are doing here in Parseltongue, Harry.'

"Er, so, excuse me, uh," Harry began, his face instantly red, "What are they doing here?"

'Perfect, thank you,' Tom thought.

Voldemort rapped his fingers once on the tabletop while Nagini smirked.

"You said she should watch it all fall with you. Far be it from me to withhold the opportunity. The chains are ready," the Dark Lord responded after Harry had assumed he wasn't going to.

He could feel Tom watching the interaction with avid interest, but he didn't know why. He kept his eyes averted with some effort, though they seemed almost possessed against his will. Luna's comment about his eyelashes was ringing in his ears.

'What are you doing?' Harry wondered.

'Checking something.'

'Something what?'

'I don't know yet.'

Harry narrowed his eyes and focused them on his hands, interlocked on the table.

Voldemort let them sit in awkward silence for what felt like over half an hour, filled only by Nagini's scribbling. She looked up at him every few minutes and raised her eyebrows, but he didn't push his luck and ignored her.

When the sun had completely vanished from the sky, Voldemort pulled up his sleeve and pressed his wand to the Dark Mark.

Harry released a breath as heavily as he dared when the doors swung inwards, relieved to no longer be as alone. Lucius was the first in the room, looking almost entirely recovered. He was carrying a heavy, polished wooden chest that he placed at the end of the table.

Narcissa and Draco followed him, the latter doing a double take at the hostages locked in wards and then at Harry, eyebrows high on his forehead, as he took his usual seat.

The next person in the room made Harry do his own double take. Cedrum, in a bright suit, unlit pipe in his mouth. He gave Harry a small nod as he sat down, then Voldemort, before he watched the hostages and lit his pipe with his wand.

'What's he doing here?' Harry wondered.

'Ask.'

'…Okay, what are you doing?'

'Ask him in Parseltongue what Cedrum is doing here.'

'Tom.'

'Humour me. He will not kill you. At this point.'

Harry's legs were bouncing under the table, slightly numb with adrenaline as he opened his mouth. "Why- why is Cedrum here?"

The Dark Lord met his eyes, forcing him to look away from the intensity. "He is here to receive a threat. And a Dark Mark."

'Are you gonna tell me what you're doing?' Harry wondered when he finally felt Voldemort look away.

'Not yet.'

He early scoffed but held it in as the doors opened a third time, revealing Lydia, Cassiopeia, and a dragged, feral Vanya—chained and muzzled.

"Morning, Harry!" Cassiopeia shouted as she attached her shrieking spawn to the wall behind Voldemort and silenced her.

She sat down beside him, and Lydia took the seat next to her.

"How is your spawn?" Tom asked, and she grinned at him.

"Thank you for being literally the first to ask." She shot a look at Voldemort, who ignored them both. "I'm having these intense maternal feelings. Really wigging me out. I also want to rip her dead heart from her whiny chest. Lydia says all new parents go through it."

Lydia fought a laugh, and Tom didn't, snorting openly before he fell silent.

"If it is the same to you I do not wish to sit in this meeting all night."

"Of course, my Lord," Tom said smoothly in English while Voldemort's Parseltongue still gave Harry chills.

'What is going on?' He wondered, more intensely than before. Whenever he questioned, Tom would jam Harry's thoughts where neither he nor the Dark Lord could find them.

Voldemort flicked his wrist, and the heavy box at the very far end of the table shot towards him, making Nagini readjust her position. She sat up on the wood when the chest reached her and undid the latch.

The Dark Lord reached a gloved hand inside and removed a small metal snake. Its body was made of fine chain links, and its jaw was hinged with a clasp. The snake writhed angrily in his grip, searching for purchase with its tiny metallic fangs, the chain links almost hissing as it moved.

"Arguably a fate worse than death," Voldemort said conversationally.

"They must be named in the serpent tongue. Only the one who names them can remove them," The Dark Lord looked at Harry as he spoke in Parseltongue, and he wasn't sure if he was being threatened or told.

"I name you Salphia." Voldemort placed the instantly calm snake on the table, where it slithered, clicking, across the dark wood. Nagini, her nose close to the table, followed. They both moved towards Cedrum, who was casually watching its approach while puffing his pipe.

"Should it touch you, it will burrow under your skin."

Harry could see that Hermione was the only hostage who understood what he meant and what they were. She'd dropped to the floor, kicking both legs into the wards with all the force she could muster.

"The function is simple but effective."

Harry quickly looked at Voldemort to find that his eyes were also on Hermione, though the metal snake was close to Cedrum.

"An irremovable block on the victim's magical core."

Cedrum finally, minutely, flinched away from the snake, looking at the Dark Lord for the first time.

"I did not think it appropriate to summon your charges. But you will pass the message along," Voldemort said, and the metal serpent stopped in its advance.

Harry finally understood who it was he was actually threatening. Avalon and Eris.

Widrich didn't speak. He nodded once, shooting his eyes momentarily to Harry. He didn't give him a response with his face or his words, conscious of the Dark Lord's gaze, now on him.

"Lucius, Severus has once again proven to be an egregious diplomat. You will consult with him and pick up his slack. Beauxbatons, first." Voldemort pulled his eyes away from Harry.

The blonde nodded curtly, then said, "Forgive me, my Lord, I believe Durmstrang and Mahoutokoro would take an envoy in your place as a weakness and an insult, respectively."

"…This is why I said Beauxbatons first. Arrangements are being made."

"Forgive me," Lucius bowed his head.

"You may go," Voldemort gestured to all three of the Malfoys, and they stood to bow low before they exited, Draco nearly backing out as he watched Harry and the hostages.

He looked at Cassiopeia to find her narrowing her eyes at the Dark Lord. She noticed him looking and wiggled her eyebrows in his direction.

"Okay so my thing now," she said when the doors closed.

Harry heard an infinitesimal sigh beside him before Voldemort waved a hand for her to continue.

"So, I was thinking, well, we were thinking," Cassiopeia gestured at Lydia, who looked mortified to be brought into it, "Our distinct lack of healers is something we could work to remedy. Lydia basically sits around waiting for this one to be hurt or hurt others," she pointed at Harry, and he said:

"Hey."

"It's true. So, why not have her teach? Wild that it wasn't done earlier. It's taught at Ilvermorny," Cassiopeia continued.

The Dark Lord snapped his head to look at Harry, who nearly startled but managed only to bug his eyes in response.

"Your input?" He asked in Parseltongue.

Every time he honored the deal Harry was somehow shocked. "I think it's a good idea."

"So be it. Arrange the schedules. Again."

Cassiopeia fist-pumped under the table and jabbed Lydia with her elbow, hitting her in the upper shoulder because the vampire was at least two feet taller than the healer.

Nagini was playing with the metal snake. She had picked it up by its tail and examined its fangs as it hung limp in her fingers.

"Cedrum."

At the Dark Lord's command the necromancer stood up, sighing. "Couldn't be avoided forever, I suppose." He rolled up his left sleeve and approached Voldemort, who had already drawn his wand.

"Morsmorde Stigma," he said once he'd pressed the wand he'd taken from Dumbledore to the skin of Widrich's arm, making the necromancer suck in a breath and wince as the skull and snake appeared, large and dark on his forearm.

"You may go," he told Cedrum, who pulled down his fuchsia sleeve and frowned out of the room.

"Lydia."

"Oh. Okay. Yeah. I can do this. This is fine," she muttered as she stood, and Cassiopeia squeezed her wrist.

She pulled up her robe sleeve and walked behind Harry to stand beside him, her breathing shaky.

The Dark Lord wasn't phased by her apparent reluctance and marked her just the same. She yelped, then swore, and then profusely apologised.

"I'm so sorry. He didn't make it look that bad. Ow, actually. I'm so sorry. I don't usually say that word."

"You are free to go," Voldemort deadpanned.

"Oh, alright," she bowed awkwardly, "Thank you, my Lord. I'll see you later, yeah?" She muttered the question to Cassiopeia as she passed, and the vampire grinned.

"Yeah. Soon."

As she exited, Harry's heart jumped. He got the feeling he would not only be present for the chaining of the hostages but might also be involved. There was also the probability that he'd be needed to soothe his Horcrux afterwards.

"Now, about an apprentice for her," Cassiopeia said as the doors closed.

"You can also leave."

She looked him up and down and smirked. "Tom," she purred, "Are you busy or something?"

"Always busy," Nagini said, still holding the snake and missing the tone of the conservation. As was Harry.

Cassiopeia tsked, "Such a shame to be so… Busy. I'll leave you to it. And I'll bring this back up again later. Love you."

He flinched at her words and waved her off. She grinned and stood up, her nails gouging the tabletop. She unchained Vanya but didn't remove the silencing spell. For the better, as she appeared to be trying to scream in Cassiopeia's face.

"Oh, Harry. Ginny, what did she say about Pervy?"

Tom laughed so hard that Harry could not correct her for at least twenty seconds.

"His name is- is Percy," he choked. "She said she'd meet him."

"At least we could solve one small problem with our powers combined, aye?" She dragged Vanya from the room and appeared to miss her own joke.

Voldemort stood up when he, Nagini, Harry, and the hostages were the only ones left in the dining room. He stunned Harry by removing his gloves, hood, and mask, revealing his face to Hermione, Seamus, and Lavender. The latter was the only one not to register it, her face still buried in her hands and knees.

'Ask,' Tom thought, and Harry shook his head in response, thoroughly confused. He could not tear his eyes away as the Dark Lord levitated the heavy chest back to the other end of the table, walking alongside it.

'Ask him,' Tom repeated.

"Why would you show them your face?" He hadn't been able to stop the question.

"…Controlled conditions. Come here."

Harry shot out of his seat, and Nagini slid off the wood, bringing the snake with her as they both came to stand beside Voldemort. As they did, he released the wards around Lavender, immediately silencing her as her sobs became audible. It took her a few seconds to notice she was no longer trapped, and she scrambled to her feet.

"Imperio," the Dark Lord cast and brought her forward, no longer sobbing, her arms raised.

Nagini passed Voldemort the snake named Salphia, and he dropped it onto Lavender's waiting wrist. It bit into her skin immediately, tearing a hole and worming its way into her flesh, then intertwining with the bones of her arm as it vanished. Though she was under the Imperius, she shook, her nostrils flaring, tears shaking free from her eyes. As the chains took effect, she lost her resistance and went glassy-eyed, swaying on her feet.

The Dark Lord sat her on the floor and turned to Harry, rotating the chest so that its contents faced them. He took another furious snake, this time levitated free from the box.

"I name you-"

"Suji," Nagini interrupted, and the Dark Lord nearly smiled.

"I name you Suji." He released the wards around Seamus, who decided to run at Harry.

Tom stopped him with the curse, a knee-jerk reaction that brought Finnigan instantly to the ground, screaming until he was silenced and Imperioed by Voldemort. Instead of placing the snake himself, he hovered it towards Harry. He caught it with the darkness, still seeping from his left hand. His heart hammered in his throat as he examined the metal serpent up close.

Hermione was pacing in her tiny dome, eyes huge as she looked anywhere but them. It brought a wave of satisfaction that he leaned into, much larger than the slip of guilt that laced his thoughts.

'Ask him to let us name the last,' Tom thought, and again, Harry wondered what exactly he was doing.

He didn't ask immediately; instead, he placed the snake on Seamus' arm and watched with wide eyes and a rapid pulse as it repeated the gory process. Once inside, the serpent twisted around the bones of his wrist, visible as a series of lumps. Seamus' eyes unfocused, just as Lavender's had done, and the Dark Lord sat him beside her.

"Would you- could we name the next one?"

Voldemort narrowed his eyes, then entered his head, giving Tom very little time to hide whatever he was doing and let him in. Harry watched his face as he ransacked his thoughts, his eyes distant and blackening, his breathing shallow.

He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he assumed he'd found it as he removed himself from their mind and gestured at the box.

"Go ahead."

'I hope you have a name because I'll call it Bob or something,' Harry thought, annoyed at Tom's lack of transparency.

He ignored him, as he expected him to, and reached the darkness into the chest to release the final writhing serpent as the Dark Lord dropped the last wards.

"Don't Imperio her," Harry said.

Voldemort leaned on the table, eyebrows fractionally raised. He shooed Nagini further away from Hermione as he watched.

His once best friend watched him with disbelief until her eyes locked on the snake, twisting in the curse.

"What an innovative idea, Granger," Tom said. "If I were a betting man, I would say this was your invention."

Her face told Harry that Tom was right, and he squawked a disbelieving laugh.

"Your idea?" He repeated, "Your idea to make these chains and put them on me?"

Harry grabbed her jaw without warning, forcing her mouth open. She twisted in his grip, so he tightened it, making her whimper as her teeth cut into her cheeks.

"I name you Énigme," Tom hissed as Harry forced the curse and the snake into her mouth.