Three's a Charm

He looks at her, face turning somewhat expectant and she realizes if she wants him to keep talking and dragging this out, which is the major reason she's been letting him go on and on so as to give Ron and the Professors more time, then she would need to play into his narcissistic need to seem clever. To gloat about his plan. It's for that reason she carefully makes her expression confused but with dawning horror, “What exactly does that mean? To pour a bit of your soul into her.”

It's clearly exactly what he'd been looking for, as he starts going on and on about how he had started possessing Ginny, her own dawning horror as she realized what was happening leading up to her trying to get rid of it, which was what led to her finding it after she followed the Basilisk's voice moving through the pipes. How she had freaked out and stolen it back, terrified that she might learn Ginny's part in things or her secrets.

She continues to buy time, playing into his need to weave his story and only speaking when it's obvious he expects her to say something. Finally he sighs, “But I've answered your questions Calanthe. I've told you the whole tale, so now it's time you answered mine. How is it that you, naught but a tiny girl with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?”

She narrows her eyes, “And why, exactly, would that matter to you? If you were a student fifty years ago, he's after your time.”

Tom smiles, “Voldemort is my past, present, and future, Calanthe Potter-Black…”

He draws what seemed to be Ginny's wand, if she's remembering it right which makes sense given the circumstances, from his pocket. Then he began to trace it through the air, leaving letters of fire in its wake and soon spelling out his full name. When he's done, he flicks the wand and the letters rearrange themselves into a phrase that has her tightening her jaw as she meets his gaze.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

“You see?” He whispers, “It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keeping the name of a foul, common muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No Calanthe, I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!”

She snorts, and he twitches, “I suppose this is where you start going on about Albus Dumbledore and how he's better? Even though he's been driven out of the castle by a mere memory of me?”

She shakes her head at his sneer, “Not at all. By pure skill, yes, one has to admit he's a good wizard, but I don't think he's the greatest wizard in the world. Don't think you are either though. It's awfully narrow minded to call yourself the best, period. Since there are so many branches of magic and one cannot be the best at them all even without taking other factors into account, like raw power and whether they have the knowledge to make proper use of it, or even the reverse. I don't think there's any definitive ‘greatest magical in the world’ and that it's awfully pretentious of anyone to claim that they are.”

He stares at her with an odd look on his face, “I wasn't expecting you not to be one of Dumbledore's little followers…” A calculating gleam enters his eyes before he suddenly smiles rather coyly at her, “My dear Calanthe, I do believe we may have got off on the wrong foot here…”

She barks a laugh, “You can go ahead and drop the act right now, because I don't know if you were just trying to befriend me or if you were taking it even further and trying to seduce me, but I'm not interested in either from you. I may not be in Dumbledore's camp, but considering your older self, I'm not in yours either.”

The coy smile disappears, though he doesn't look as upset as she thought he'd get at her not falling for his manipulations, “A pity. It's so rare to meet someone not under Dumbledore's thumb, and to find one with such raw untapped power at that…” He sighs, rather dramatically in her opinion, “It's almost a shame to have to kill you. But I will, and then I will finish draining little Miss Ginny of her magic and come back in full.” That's the last of it, as he turns to the statue, and says, or hisses she presumes, “Speak to me Salazar, greatest of the founders four.”

The moment the mouth up towards the ceiling grinds open and she hears the rustle of a large beast rubbing against stone, she immediately drops her gaze to the ground, looking specifically at her feet and carefully watching the massive serpent drop down. She is extremely careful not to meet its eyes even though she's watching its reflection rather than staring at it directly, since while it wouldn't directlykill her it would petrify her, which is practically the same thing in this situation. Because the result would be either Riddle killing her when she was vulnerable, or he'd manipulate her mind while she was defenseless to be on his side, which may not be a physical death, but would be the death of her all the same.

She'd actually prefer the former if she had to pick one, so in a certain morbid way, she's actually somewhat relieved by Riddle's hissed command, “Kill her.”

The Basilisk tastes the air, then starts to slither forward. She tenses up, readying herself as she makes a snap decision, hoping it will at least buy her time. She waits until she sees the Basilisk start to bunch up for a lunge in its reflection before tossing wires out and up towards the heads of snake statues on either side, activating the wires and making them pull her straight up since neither can pull her to the side as the Basilisk lunges directly underneath her where she'd just been standing, lining itself up with her airborne form.

She immediately gets the wires to unwrap and start retracting as she twists around in mid air, summoning her sword as she starts to fall.

She had figured that she may be able to injure it enough to slow it down or something. She had not been counting on cleaving it's head off in one blow.

As she straightens up, Riddle makes a choking noise off to the side. She turns in his direction, and taking in his gaping mouth she decides he was probably too distracted to start firing spells at her, she briefly flicks a couple of shield spells to press up against each cut in the head and body, because hey Basilisk blood is valuable, she's not going to let it gush all over the floor, especially when it's as easy as pressing shield spells to the wounds to keep it in, and it only takes a second. When she's satisfied with that, she leans her sword against its side, then casually moves towards its head, though she keeps an eye on Riddle, making it look like she was just moving sideways instead of turning because she's inspecting the corpse.

She'd been bluffing earlier, when she said she wasn't worried about the Basilisk, mostly to throw him off for a couple of reasons, to try to loosen his tongue more for one, though only because she hadn't realized he was all too happy to lay it all out, but also to throw him off balance in the case he started firing spells so as to skew things more in her favor.

But she's not above pretending she wasn't and that she genuinely thought that would kill the Basilisk, and she does exactly that as she sees him start to rally himself, his hand tightening on the wand as he starts to bring it up, “Really, I don't know what you were expecting. I told you I wasn't concerned about it.” He twitches, but he has no reply to that. It stalls him enough for her to reach the head, and she slips the diary from her pocket, “More importantly, Basilisk venom can destroy practically anything.” She holds up the diary so he can see it as she partly turns towards him, “Think your little book can survive it?”

She wiggles it a little as she says the last, and from the poorly hidden panic that comes over his face, the answer is a resounding no, he whips around briefly to look towards Ginny, undoubtedly double checking it was gone from over there and she genuinely had his actual diary. As he starts to whirl back, yanking his stolen wand up, she extends it towards the gaping mouth and impales it on one of the fangs. Immediately, a glowing hole rips itself into Riddle's chest, and he stumbles back with a gasp, so she yanks it off the fang before shoving it forward again, careful not to touch the fang with her own hands.

With the second stab of the fang through the diary, the ghostly Riddle explodes into whisps before even those disappear. Shoving the book back into her pocket, she swiftly strides over to her sword, but simply moves it quickly to be touching both shields on the stumps of the body and the severed head, since she needs to leave, to get Ginny out of here and to any medical attention she may need, and her connection with her sword will allow her to continue holding the shields in place so as to not lose some of its valuable blood.

Even as she strides towards Ginny after quickly doing that though, the girl stirs. That being said, she also knows that she probably shouldn't be awake, since whatever that magic drain Riddle was telling her he was doing did to her, there was a very good chance she could strain herself. It's for that reason that she flicks some magic over her to lull her to sleep even as she levitates her body up.

The moment she has Ginny situated, she strides for the door, calling back for it to close behind her after she passes. As she does she reaches into her space expanded bag, using the magic so that whatever one was thinking of would come to your hand to call one of the crystals that absorbs a bit of a magical signature. Then she uses it on the diary before shoving both into her pockets, and it isn't terribly long at all before she's walking up the stairs towards the entrance in the bathroom.

As she approaches, she hears voices. First was Snape, “-know very well neither of them are alive!”

Then McGonagall, “We have no guarantee of that! If we don't go, it could very well be that which kills them!”

Flitwick, “I concur, but with something like that, I do believe it would require all of us. Severus, please.”

Then finally Snape again as she is almost to the top, “I will not risk my life for a couple corpses. That fool girl threw her life away, given there's no possible way she could escape a Basilisk. No, it's better we stand here where we can ambush it while its movement is restricted.”

As she walks up the final few steps, she calls out, “So little faith Snape.”

The group of Professors all whip towards her as she crests the stairs, all of them gaping at her. She can only imagine what sort of image she must strike, Ginny's unconscious body floating behind, and with the initial spray from the beheading she's covered in Basilisk blood. She smiles a little at Snape's dumbfounded expression, "You really think a Basilisk can do me in?”

Ignoring the gaping, she turns to where even Madam Pomfrey was with them, gesturing at Ginny, “There was a cursed object behind the Chamber being opened possessing her this whole year, which isn't exactly her fault since it would take an incredible mastery over Occlumency to ward it off and she doesn't even know it to begin with. It was also draining her of her magic though, and from my understanding it was going to drain her completely. It didn't get that far obviously, and I put her back to sleep after she started waking so she wouldn't strain herself, but…”

That seems to snap Madam Pomfrey out of her gaping as she hurries over, casting spells at Ginny all the while. It isn't long before she hisses, though not in Parseltongue obviously, then tilts her head vaguely in Professor Flitwick's direction, “Filius, I need to concentrate on getting her stabilized or it could very well do permanent damage to her core, if not outright make her a squib, so could you-”

Her Head of House steps over quickly, “Of course Pomona.” He flicks his wand at Ginny, then glances at her, “You can let go of her Miss Potter-Black, I've got her.”

She lets go of that spell, though she's careful not to release the shields on the Basilisk. They start to rush off, and even as they do, Madam Pomfrey calls over her shoulder, “Minerva, could you-”

The older witch calls back to her retreating figure, “I have Miss Potter-Black. Focus on Miss Weasley.” Nothing else can be said before Madam Pomfrey and Professor Flitwick are gone. Professor McGonagall flicks her wand over her few times, growing more and more surprised with each, before slowly lowering it, “...Or not. Miss Potter-Black, how precisely did you face down a Basilisk and yet there's not even a scratch on you?”

She shrugs, “It lunged for me. Big mistake on its part really, since it lost its head. More importantly now that Ginny is getting treatment and I don't need to worry about her, it's more of a formality, but I claim Right of Conquest on the Basilisk corpse.”

Off to the side, Snape twitches even as Professor McGonagall nods, “Of course, Miss Potter-Black. It's rightfully yours.”

She smiles at her then continues, “I will need to hire Goblins to come render the corpse for me, which means they will have to come to Hogwarts.”

Professor McGonagall nods again, “I don't have the authority of a Deputy Head anymore of course, but I see no reason they should be a problem.”

Professor Vector steps forward from where the cluster of other Professors had just been watching the proceedings, “I do. I'll authorize them to enter the grounds when they get here.”

She flashes another smile at Professor Vector, which the woman returns. That's as far as things get before to their surprise, Dumbledore's voice echoes through the school, “Professor Vector, please escort Miss Potter-Black to my office.”

The Professors all look up in surprise, but it's Sprout who speaks, “When did…”

She herself isn't that shocked that Dumbledore wiggled his way out of his suspension and is already back, and she carefully controls the way her eyes want to narrow. Time for the games to begin she supposes.

She turns to the sinks, “Close.” Then back to Vector, “Other than the fact I'd really like to shower and change, which there isn't time for, I'm ready when you are Professor.” She glances at the other Professors, “Oh, but someone may wanna go deal with Lockhart. Ron panicked when we realized Ginny was in danger after we found out about the Basilisk and dragged me to him. He was in the middle of packing to flee, and during the confrontation, he admitted that while the core story in his books was true, he got them from the people who actually did the deeds, obliviated them, embellished the story and published it as one of his books. The moment I saw him going for his wand I disarmed him, stunned him, then tied him up and left him there.”

Sprout's expression had turned thunderous at the revelation of Lockhart stealing the credit, which makes absolute sense given how Hufflepuffs value hard work, and nods firmly, “I will deal with him, don't you worry about it Miss Potter-Black.”

Vector shakes her head in mild amusement then flashes Calanthe another smile, and gestures to her to follow as she starts for the door. While it's not exactly tense, if anything Professor Vector has a spring in her step which is understandable given the threat of the Basilisk is gone and the students it petrified would be restored soon, but the trip to the Headmaster’s office is silent.

When they get there, Vector gives the password and heads up with her, and Dumbledore's mouth twitches ever so slightly down when he sees Vector with her before he smiles, “Ah, thank you Septima, please go inform the Weasleys that young Ginerva is being seen to by Madam Pomfrey. From my understanding they were called to Hogwarts by McGonagall before young Ronald came and told her what was happening and have been anxiously waiting with their children since. And maybe go speak to the kitchen about arranging a feast, since the fact the petrified students should be restored today and the end of the reign of terror makes this certainly a worthy occasion.”

Vector nods, then flashes her a smile before she leaves. Once she's gone, Dumbledore eyes her a bit, eyes looking ever so slightly troubled. There's a few beats of silence before he seems to shake himself, “Well Miss Potter-Black. Given what you've done for this school, I do believe a Special Award for Services to the School is in order, and also two hundred points to Ravenclaw, though I do find myself most curious as to how you managed to defeat the Basilisk.”

His eyes had flicked to his Phoenix, and she will never understand how one had bonded to him as his familiar, but the look makes it click. Both his odd comment before he left about loyalty to him and why he seemed so troubled. He had been expecting her to call his Phoenix to her via showing great loyalty to him, but that hadn't happened. She shrugs casually, “Wasn't too hard. My family has a long tradition of learning melee weapons and also has swords that come when we call. I waited until I saw it readying itself to lunge, used something to launch myself up much further than I could jump, summoned one in midair and dropped right on the neck it had exposed to me with its lunge.”

He hums faintly, “I see. Most… impressive.”

There's a few more beats of silence before he shakes himself out, “Well… I suppose you ought to be going then, to get some food and rest after your… little adventure.”

She shifts, “What about Hagrid?”

He smiles at that, likely because of how vocally loyal the man is to him making him pleased she's fond of him, then pulls open a desk drawer to retrieve some parchment before he reaches for his ink and quill, “Indeed, I shall need to write to Azkaban so we can get our games keeper back. Ahh, and I suppose I'll need to write out an advertisement for the Daily Prophet for the new opening in our Defense post. Dear me, we do seem to go through them rather quickly, don't we?”

She nods and gets up and starts for the door. Before she can reach it however, the door slams open as Lucius Malfoy storms in. He doesn't even seem to notice her as she steps aside, but as she does, she notices someone.

Dobby the House elf.

He was scurrying after the edge of Lord Malfoy's cloak, looking rather terrified. As she swings her gaze back to the other two, she sees as Dumbledore smiles as pleasantly as his voice comes out, “Good evening, Lucius.”

Dobby was scurrying around his feet, holding a rag with which he was attempting to polish Lord Malfoy's shoes with. Given the job only seems half done as well as the disheveled state of his hair, it would seem the man had rushed out of the house the moment he got the news Dumbledore was back. Given she and Vector hadn't been in any hurry as they went to the Headmaster office, but she knew Snape was somewhat close to the Malfoys, the man who had the audacity to call himself a Professor had likely rushed off and let him know.

Lucius sneers down his nose at Dumbledore, “So! You've come back. The Board of Governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts.”

Dumbledore's smile becomes serene, “Well, you see Lucius, the other eleven Governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They’d heard that Arthur Weasley’s daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too… Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn’t agree to suspend me in the first place. Something about knowing how many votes you should have, and just going for the lot of them if the number didn't line up since the anonymity meant you wouldn't know which hadn't done it anymore…”

Lord Malfoy paled, but his eyes were still incredibly furious as he sneers, “So, have you stopped the attacks yet? Have you caught the culprit?”

Dumbledore continues smiling, “We have.”

Lord Malfoy's voice becomes impatient and tinged with… maybe a little anticipation? He clearly knows something, “Well? Who was it?”

Dumbledore shakes his head, “The same person it was last time Lucius. But this time, Voldemort was acting through someone else. By means of this diary.”

He holds up it up, closely watching Lord Malfoy. She herself was more interested in Dobby right at that moment, or more specifically, the way he was pointing at the black book, pointing at Malfoy, then hitting himself in the head. The first time through the motion had caught her attention, and upon seeing the entire thing the second time, having only looked over in time to see him pointing at Lord Malfoy the first, she meets his eyes and nods slightly in understanding so he'll stop doing it and hitting himself.

Lord Malfoy speaks much slower this time, “I see…”

Dumbledore's voice is more level rather than cheerful now, as he stares the other man in the eye, “A clever plan, because if Calanthe here,” Lord Malfoy shoots her a sharp look, making it clear he wasn't entirely unaware she was there when he almost barreled into her, “hadn't discovered the book and what it was doing, why, Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…”

Lord Malfoy says nothing in return, his face suddenly blanking out, though she can see the well hidden flicker of unease. Dumbledore doesn't seem bothered by his silence, “And imagine, what might have happened then… The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing muggleborns… Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise…”

Lord Malfoy seemed to force himself to speak, though it comes out rather stiff, “Very fortunate.”

She tilts her head, and then takes a bit a guess work based on what Ron had told her about their run in with Lord Malfoy on their shopping trip based on the fact Dobby had been pointing between them, “Then again, I suppose you already knew all that, and that it would also get Mr Weasley off your back, since you were the one to give it to her. You slipped it among her books when you picked up the ones she was carrying in her cauldron when you had that little… confrontation with Mr Weasley after all.”

Lord Malfoy twitches lightly as he looks over at her, “I don't know where you get such an idea, since you weren't even there that day.”

She smiles sweetly, knowing she'd hit the nail on the head that her guess of Ron's vague mention of him snatching up Ginny's books and sneering at their run down quality being when he delivered it was right, “That you know of.”

He hisses out at her, “Prove it.”

Dumbledore is the one to answer, shooting her an amused smile, “Oh, no one will be able to do that. Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Voldemort's old school things. I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you…”

Lord Malfoy stands there stiffly for a few moments, then whirls away, “We're going Dobby!”

He wrenched the door open, physically kicking Dobby out of it, and she can hear him continuing to squeal for a moments as she quickly shoves a shoe off with the toes of the other and snatches the sock off before jamming hed foot back in, doing her best to make her expression a mixture of hurried, concerned, and hopeful as she asks Dumbledore at the same time, “Headmaster Dumbledore, can I give that diary back to Lord Malfoy?”

His eyes gleam in a mixture of amusement and satisfaction, “Certainly Calanthe, but do hurry, the feast if you'll remember, and since you need to grab a quick shower…”

She nods as she quickly swipes it up, opening it and shoving the sock inside as she heads out. On the way down the stairs however, she slips the sock back out of the notebook and tucks it into a pocket. Once she's left the stairwell to Dumbledore's office, she draws her wand and sets off after Malfoy senior, carefully timing her pace to catch up with him in one of the few bare hallways in the school, likely his preferred route due to the lack of portraits or any other thing that could spy on the occupants.

She flicks her wand, casting the muffliato spell and causing him to flinch before she calls out to him, "Lord Malfoy."

He twitches at the sound of her voice, then turns to her, "Heiress Potter…-Black.”

She smiles, without a lick of the faux innocent sweetness she'd had when she'd nailed when he gave the diary to Ginny, but one she knows is more cat that got the canary, or in her case, Dragon that caught the Abraxan, “Lord Malfoy. I came to return this to you.”

She holds the diary out to him. He twitches, “Given it has nothing to do with me, despite your claims in the Headmaster's office, I won't be needing it.”

Her smile widens as she approaches, “Oh, but I think you do. You've made a mistake that will cost you yours and the rest of your family's lives after all.”

He sneers, hand tightening on the end of his cane, “Is that a threat, Heiress Potter?”

She shakes her head, “Heiress Potter-Black,” He twitches again, “And no, not a threat, a warning. You never showed this to your wife.” It isn't a question and she makes it clear with her tone, “I know she knows full well what a Horcrux is, and she'd have never let you risk their lives handing this one out. Take it to her, show her it. Tell her what it's capable of and have her examine it.”

“And when she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt I'm not wrong about what it is, tell her this, and I do mean exactly this: You ought to know full well what someone who's died with a Horcrux is meant to look like, not quite a ghost, but not far off. But I've seen your old master, just last year in fact, and he was naught but smoke that vaguely had a face. You should know what that means. And what it means for your family that you got this one destroyed, especially since he made it as a teenager, so it's likely his first and had a full half that you got killed. Think long and hard about your options and when you're done… I'll be waiting for your letter.”

She holds it out to him again, and with a moment of hesitation and a vaguely fearful look in his eyes, he snatches it from her hand before whirling away. Dobby looks at her a little confused, but she gives him a more genuine smile before clearly mouthing, ‘I know what I'm doing.’

He smiles back before rushing after his master.

She watches them go with a smile. Pureblood supremacists they may be, but given how often they manage to wiggle out of trouble, they aren't idiots. They'll understand full well that they were rather… screwed as far as Voldemort goes. He would not forgive them for getting a full half of his soul destroyed. They would have no choice but to throw in with someone else in the hopes of him being killed before he could find out and murder them for it.

Which, amongst other things, means she just locked down Malfoy's vote at minimum, and his bloc as well most likely, at least until there's a confrontation about why his voting has changed, and why he's been pushing them to as well even if she picks and chooses which votes for him to go with her on rather than doing his usual so as to make it take longer for them to notice. And when they do, it'll be tricky to manage, but if she plays her cards right, she should be able to at least keep some of the votes from the group Malfoy was in at the moment, though inevitably there will be some who are such fanatic blood purists that they'll remain stubborn.

A flicker of amusement runs through her as she turns away to head back to her dorm for a shower as a particular thought crosses her mind. In a way, she'd beheaded two snakes today.

She glances at her right hand, and as she'd suspected, there was indeed blood covering it, so she waves her left hand, using a wandless cleaning charm on both her right hand and sleeve. When it's gone and there isn't a chance of her smearing blood all over them, she reaches into the mokeskin pouch Hagrid had gotten her for Yule to get her phone. Taking advantage of the fact she had managed to get a cell tower in Hogsmeade, and illusioned it like she'd been planning, she opens her text chat to Hermione, “Hey, from my understanding they're supposed to restore you all today. I don't know if they already have or not, but I got a bit busy saving Ginny and now I need to go shower. Just wanted to let you know that if I'm not there when you wake up, it's not because I didn't want to be.”

Given Dumbledore had sent Vector to arrange for the feast since they were supposed to wake soon, she waits a few moments and isn't even surprised when a reply comes in, “Hey! I'm so glad you're okay! Ron told me you guys found the paper in my hand and worked it out and that you left to go and try to retrieve Ginny, and that then Madam Pomfrey brought her to the infirmary, and she called and someone from Saint Mungos showed up to help check her over and everything and by the time they left, they'd gotten her to the point she wouldn't become a squib or have her magic permanently crippled but it'd still weaken her if they didn’t take her to Saint Mungos and finish treating her, so him and his brothers stayed and just his parents went with her, so he was here when I was woken up to tell me all of it.”

She smiles at her friend's rambling, then types back, “Well, I'm glad Ginny will be okay, and Ron explained for me. They're having a feast tonight, so I'll see you there, alright?”

She gets an affirmative back as she enters the common room, so she tucks her phone back into her pouch as she heads up to her dorm to get cleaned up.

The feast was over and it was technically past curfew, but she'd had the foresight to send a note to Brightblade about hiring the goblins to render a creature for her before she'd taken her shower, casting another cleaning charm on her other hand so both would be bloodless while she wrote it, and she'd gotten special permission to be out to let them down into the Chamber.

It was the whole reason she was at the gates with Professor Vector despite the fact it was getting somewhat late. They appear just down the lane, and swiftly come over, quickly being allowed in the wards by Professor Vector. To her surprise, Brightblade was with them, and he grins at her, “I was far too curious about what sort of creature would have you willing to just simply do an outright payment of 500(1) gallons to get a large beast rendered rather than doing the usual of negotiating us keeping parts of it and getting it either cheap or free not to come.”

She smiles at him, “Because it's far more worthwhile to me to just pay it outright. If nothing else, there's something I'm fairly certain you would want to claim that I have vague ideas about using.”

He nods, “Considering you are no fool when it comes to business despite your age, I figured that was the case, but I'm curious anyway.”

She chuckles as another goblin clears his throat, “I believe we all are, but if I may? It's standard, so please be patient while we go through the oaths not to take anything, nor allow anything to be taken.”

She nods and one by one the goblins swear oaths on their magic, then step off to the side so she can easily keep track of which ones have and haven't sworn. When they're done, Brightblade hums, “I'm not part of the rendering group, but since I'm here too… I, Brightblade, swear on my magic that I will neither take anything from the beast Gringotts has been hired to render by Calanthe Potter-Black, nor will I allow anyone else to, so mote it be.”

She feels that oath settle as well, and the head of the group that will be working on it nods, “Now that that's taken care of, while it's better to do it while we're standing still here so you can be sure we all swore, now that we have, please take us to the beast in question.”

She nods and starts leading them up to the castle, “It's a bit of a strange placement as far as getting to it. We have to go up to, of all things, a bathroom on the second floor to access the way down to a chamber beneath the castle. I suppose I should also warn you, we haven't gotten a chance to clean down there and there are a lot of small creature skeletons of rats and the like in the first section of the tunnel.”

Brightblade and Gleamstone, the one in charge of the rendering group, both raise their eyebrows at her, but nod in understanding. It's not terribly long before they're in Myrtle's bathroom, and here she's actually surprised to find a group of Professors waiting. Flitwick is the one who steps forward, “We were wondering if you wouldn't mind us coming with to see the beast ourselves Miss Potter-Black.”

She blinks, “I don't mind, but I don't know if the goblins would take issue with being there while they worked?”

She directs the last part at Gleamstone, who shrugs, “As long as there's enough room for us to work without them being underfoot, we don't mind in general.” His gaze sharpens, “That said, while it's not a first, we do require anyone else around to take the same oaths we did. That is to say, to neither take nor allow anything to be taken from the beast.”

Flitwick nods, “Perfectly understandable, and I see no problem with it.”

He and the rest of the group of Professors swiftly swear their oaths, even Snape who seems incredibly reluctant to do so. If she had to guess he had been planning on trying to swipe things, but that had put him between a rock and a hard place. He couldn't go down without swearing the Oath, but given he'd already made his interest in going clear, he couldn't refuse to do it or just leave without making it clear that he had intended to. Given he was also there and just as reluctant, she assumes the same was true of Dumbledore.

She shakes her head, “Suppose I should warn you guys too, the first part of the tunnel is a mess and has a lot of things like rats bones and the like.”

She gets nods and murmurs of understanding and with that done, it's easy to open it and get the stairs to come out. When they get down, everyone looks around, and Brightblade glances at her as they start down the tunnel, “Are these from previous meals of the beast?”

She shrugs, “I have no idea to be honest.”

He nods, but things come to a halt as they come across the shed snake skin. It draws more than a bit of murmuring, and she glances over the goblins, “Given this is shed skin, while it's obviously still valuable, since it's already off of the snake, I don't think I'll need assistance with dealing with it without damaging it?”

She glances at Gleamstone, who nods absently as they start off again and murmurs, “Quite…” Then he seems to gather himself, “Heiress Potter-Black, what sort of creature is this? To my knowledge, there's no snake capable of reaching this size. We could still do it, but this would likely be a much more difficult task if we don't know what we're working with.”

She smiles, “Oh, I'm pretty sure you are familiar with it, just not used to seeing one of this size.” And having reached the chamber itself, she pauses in her conversation to him briefly, “Open.” As they enter, she gestures at the snake, “I blindfolded it, but you'll need to be careful about the eyes.”

Gleamstone raises an eyebrow, “The eyes? What for? Especially with the beast dead.”

She smiles, “You haven't worked it out? It's a Basilisk.” There are sharp intakes of breath from the goblins, but she just continues, “And it's eyes are still intact. From my understanding, they are just as lethal with the Basilisk dead as they are when it's alive.”

There's a moment of stunned silence before Gleamstone murmurs faintly, “You aren't wrong…” Then his tone becomes somewhat disbelieving, “But a Basilisk of this size?”

One of the other goblins steps forward, “Actually sir…” Gleamstone looks over, “I've worked on a few Basilisks in my time, and while it's not well known, they grow continuously. Or well, they're said to, but given the size of this one and the speed at which they grow, I'd say this one stopped growing, mmm, in its fourth century? Though there is still the question of how this beast has lived here without them knowing it.”

She shrugs, “That easily fits in the timeline, since the legend is that Salazar Slytherin himself placed it here. How it got the food to survive when to my knowledge it was sealed away for centuries at a time, I couldn't say though.”

Gleamstone nods absently, “Shame about the blood. It's rather valuable, but it's probably mostly drained out by now.”

She smiles, “It shouldn't have actually. I've been holding shield spells against the wounds since I killed it, so it only should've lost what came out in, mm, I wanna say it was under a minute? Between when it was beheaded and I put the shields up that is.”

Brightblade's eyebrows shoot up, “And you've been holding them all this time?” She nods, “Impressive Miss Potter-Black. You aren't wrong though, that it should've held the blood in.”

Gleamstone shakes himself, and lets out a cough, “Anyway, you said it was yours by Right of Conquest, but it's standard for us to check to make sure you aren't trying to steal it from someone else.”

She raises an eyebrow, “I understand, but how exactly is that supposed to work?”

He smiles, “It isn't hard. There's a spell we can cast on the beast that will show us an echo of the last few minutes of its life. It won't ruin anything from it, so don't worry about that. And none of the rest of you need to worry about meeting the gaze of the memory form of the Basilisk.”

She nods, “Alright then.”

A trio of goblins raise their hands and chant for a few moments, a silvery orb steadily growing above them. Without warning, it suddenly shoots into the Basilisk, for a moment the snake glows silvery, before the wisps coming off of its skin shoot over to the mouth of the statue and a silvery almost Patronus looking version of the Basilisk comes out even as the silvery glow ripples out and shows the versions of herself, Ginny's unconscious form, and even Riddle.

Flitwick leans over, “I can understand why you would, but I'm curious how you managed to kill it if you were staring at the ground.”

She shrugs and points down at the water, “I was watching its reflection. I was being careful not to look it in the eye there either, since that's what happened to the other students so I was focusing a little bit down its body and watching its head in, not quite my peripheral, but off to the side?”

Flitwick hums, “Impressive quick thinking under pressure Miss Potter-Black.”

She nods, “Thank you Professor Flitwick.” She pauses briefly then adds, “I suppose I should preemptively explain in case you notice. When I made my snap decision on how I was going to deal with it, I realized my wand would be in the way, and I have a holster that pulls it back in if you let it go, so I did just that, and I needed it to lunge for me, so I held still while it approached and waited until I saw it bunching up to do so.”

She gets nods of understanding all around, and it isn't long until she sees it start to bunch up in preparation. Her own ghostly self immediately flings her arms out and launches her wires. It had seemed longer in the moment, but she's yanked up, calls them back, summons her sword and comes down on it in seconds.

There's a moment of stunned silence before Gleamstone shakes himself, “Officially, we the goblins recognize that the corpse of the Basilisk is indeed yours by Right of Conquest. Unofficially, Heiress Potter-Black, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, for ending what should rightly have been a rather protracted battle in the first move, and so cleanly at that.”

She rubs the back of her neck, “In the spirit of honesty, I don't know enough about Basilisks that I was aiming for it. It was more some of the notorious Potter luck that let that blow land right in between its vertebrae.”

He smiles, “Luck is just as important in battle as skill is, Heiress Potter-Black. And the rest of it certainly wasn't luck.” Then he turns to his group, “We will have to drain it of the blood so it doesn’t go to waste before anything else can be done, so get started on that. And someone double-check that the blindfold is secure for safety purposes.”

She tilts her head, “Not that I'm expecting the goblins to damage anything, but there's a bit of Potter family magic I've been thinking I may be able to use them for, so please don't damage the eyes.”

Gleamstone nods, “Of course Heiress Potter-Black.”

She smiled, “Thanks.”

She really wants to explore the chamber to see if there's more to it, but she doesn't trust them enough to lose sight of Dumbledore and Snape. She'll just have to come back and do it later.

She shifts a little anxiously when she sees Hagrid approaching the gates to meet her as she'd requested in her letter. When the big man comes through, she smiles a bit tensely, “Hi Hagrid.”

He nods a little warily, “Hello Calanthe. Must admit, I was rather surprised by your request to meet up with me.” He eyes the group of goblins and wizards waiting off to the side, “What's this about?”

She grimaces, “Not pleasant business to be honest, but I was hoping you'd understand and be willing to help if I explained.” He nods slowly, and she sighs, “I assume Aragog didn't tell you what happened when I took your advice and followed the spiders?”

Now he looks both confused and concerned, “Didn't tell me anything, no. Refused to speak about it actually.”

She smiles tensely again, “I'd imagine not. I doubt he wanted to admit that even though I told him I was a friend of yours and you sent me, that he was gonna let his kids eat me.” Hagrid recoils but she pushes on, “Said he couldn't very well deny them food that walked right into their nest. I'm sorry Hagrid, I am, and I really hope this doesn't break our friendship, but I cannot in good conscience leave a threat like that near the school. If they were willing to kill me when I told them I was a friend of yours…”

His face falls, “No, I get it. So are you heading out to- to wipe them out?”

She shakes her head, “Not quite. That's why I was hoping you'd help. We'll kill them if we have to, but I figured this could be a win-win for both the Acromantula and myself. If I can convince them to come quietly and make a silk farm with their help, then I can justify spending money to provide them food in the warded off area that both keeps others out and them in I had set up. I was hoping you'd come help try to convince them, since if they'd listen to anyone, it'd be you.”

He gets surprised at that, then a bit hopeful, “Really? You just wanna move them?”

She nods, “Yes. I mean, I won't lie, I'll make more profit than just what's needed to feed them from their silk, but it'll also cover the expenses of their food. And I'm not looking to do like some farms do where they're shoved in cages and basically told they either cough up the silk or starve. And I'm not just going to give them the minimum they need not to starve either.”

She shrugs, “I figured since a certain amount of food above that minimum will keep their stomachs from hurting but they'll need more yet to get full that I'll basically offer them a trade. They'll be given enough for their stomachs not to hurt, and each will also be assigned a number and a spool to put thread on, and if they meet a certain amount, they'll be given extra food. The more thread they produce, the more food they can get. The spools will be transported through the wards with magic, because they'll be allowed to roam freely inside too. You'd be more than welcome to visit whenever you want, even without warning so you can see for yourself they're being treated well.”

She holds out a bracelet big enough for him, “That's a permanent portkey to the place. It sets the return coordinates to the place you left from as well, so as long as you don't activate it in Hogwarts or someplace else with similar wards, it'll just take you right back to where you left from.”

He accepts it with a smile, then sniffles a bit, “Yeah, that sounds good. I'll help. Try to get them to see reason.”

She chews her bottom lip, “Though… Hagrid, you realize if they don't listen and instead attack…”

His face hardens, “Then that's not on your head Calanthe. You offered to deal with things peacefully. If they refuse, that's on them.”

She smiles at him, “I was hoping you'd understand.”

He smiles softly at her, “Don't worry Calanthe. You've done your best to make sure everyone walks away happy. I'm not gonna blame you if they choose to be stubborn idiots.”

He shakes himself and claps his hands as he speaks up a bit louder so the others can hear him, “Right then! I suppose I'll be leading you all to the nest!”

The flicker of amusement returns as she gets ready to head over to Malfoy manor. Just as she'd predicted, it hadn't been long at all before a letter came from Narcissa Malfoy. It was rather flowery, starting off with ‘My sincerest greetings to the venerable Heiress Potter-Black’ which had set the tone for the entire thing.

She makes sure she's controlling her expression before she smoothly steps through the floo, being greeted by Heir Malfoy on the other side. He's both nervous, and also confused, but he controls it rather well as he gives her a somewhat strained smile, “Heiress Potter-Black, we are so glad you were able to accept our invitation. Please come with me, my father and mother are waiting in the drawing room.”

She smiles, knowing full well that there's a satisfied edge to it, “Of course. Lead on.”

He twitches slightly, but does just that, and it's not too long before she's entering a rather beautiful drawing room and coming face to face with the elder Malfoy's, who also look rather nervous. She smiles at them, “My greetings to you Lord Malfoy and Lady Malfoy.”

They both stiffly return it and offer her a seat. They look rather uncertain as she gets settled, and she eyes them for a few moments, before she breaks the small silence, “Let's just cut to the chase. I assume you've confirmed that I was absolutely not lying about what it was?”

Lady Malfoy tenses slightly, “Yes. Yes I have. And if he is in the state you say he is…”

She nods, “He must have more than one. Undoubtedly more than three, given that's an even worse state then the one in the Black family records who got it into their head that the reason the ones who made two always died in the end was because they didn't need two and the core of the soul to hit the magical three they were aiming for, but three Horcruxes.”

Lady Malfoy nods, “Quite.”

That seems to be the end of Lord Malfoy's patience as he sneers, “I suppose this is the part where you tell us we have to start kowtowing to Dumbledore?”

Lady Malfoy whips towards him, “Lucius!”

She just laughs though, drawing all three of thems attention back to herself, as Lord Malfoy had started to turn to his wife and his son was looking back and forth between them in confusion, “Merlin no. I can't stand that man. Not that I'm more on your side of things either, mind.”

His poorly concealed hostility from before disappears as he eyes her, “Is that so? And yet, the Potter family is firmly light, and that's almost entirely under Dumbledore's control.”

She shakes her head, “No, we really aren't.” Seeing them become confused, she sighs, “If you'll recall the layout of the seating in the Wizengamot, the Potters are on the edge between the light and neutral. Somewhere along the line, people decided we were on the edge of the light section, when it's quite the opposite actually. We're on the edge of the neutral section. That we seemed light for so long that people forgot was because the most attention is paid to the things the light and dark sides present and push, and given we aren't anti-muggle or muggleborn, we have had more cause to vote against the dark for a long time.”

She shrugs, “Consistently enough that people just started lumping us in with the light before eventually forgetting entirely that we weren't, and a lot of my predecessors saw no reason to bother correcting it when our allies knew better.”

The Malfoys all stare at her in surprise and she tilts her head, “Not that it particularly matters at the moment, as while I do intend to make it clear that House Potter is neutral, its relevance to this discussion is questionable at best. Anyway, no, I don't expect you to start doing what Dumbledore tells you. If you answer to anyone, you answer to me. With luck, I can find all his Horcruxes before he manages to come back, but if not, there's one of two ways you can play this. The first is that you pretend to still be on his side while I work on getting rid of him before his inevitable distraction of trying to regain power keeps him from thinking to ask you about it, and either you hope I deal with it before it occurs to him to check with you or run when he does. Alternatively, you just flee him immediately after he comes back.”

Lord Malfoy shakes his head, “He does not take well to those attempting to flee his side…” He sighs, “Which means our best option is to pretend.” He looks at her somewhat annoyed, “I suppose now I always vote in line with your proxy?”

She shakes her head, “No, because it serves me even better if your bloc doesn't realize what's going on. Unless there's no heads up, I'll let you know what I need your vote for, and I'll leave you to make your own excuses to your allies and try to sway them, otherwise, continue as normal to try to keep them from realizing.”

That seems to surprise him a bit, but he nods his understanding, “That's… admittedly not a bad plan. I suppose the first thing you'll want from me will be to help break the stalemate on letting Black's trial go through? Though I must admit, I haven't the faintest idea how I'll spin that to seem reasonable to my bloc."

She smiles, “Yes, but I have an excuse for you already. This time at least. She's already agreed to say we did talk about it if anyone asks and I've given her the details of the supposed discussion, but you're going to claim your son,” She nods at the younger Malfoy, who jolts slightly at becoming the center of attention in the discussion, if only for a moment, “overheard me speaking to Heiress Bones about another journal of my mother’s. Specifically a war journal rather than her personal one, and how I hadn't presented it because that was a rather… explosive option since she had notes on people she knew or suspected were under the Imperius and you were very much not on that list for obvious reasons, which could potentially lead to your cases being reopened.”

He tenses at the last, then nods stiffly, “At which point I decided keeping one man in Azkaban was not worth potentially risking my own neck. That will work just fine, and should easily get the majority of my bloc to vote with me as well.”

She smiles, “I figured it would.” She looks over at Dobby as he enters with a tray of drinks, taking in his bandaged form, “You don't treat your House elves well I see. Quite foolish really.”

Lord Malfoy frowns, “In what way?”

She raises an eyebrow, “You've never bothered to look into cases involving them. Did you know that in the last decade alone, there have been over a hundred cases of mistreated elves killing the person or family they're bonded to?”

Lord Malfoy pauses, “They can't possibly-”

She smiles somewhat meanly, “Do it without consequences, yes, but in the case of all of those a House Elf was pushed to the point that they were willing to let the bond kill them just to off their master or masters.” Lord Malfoy pales and her smile widens a bit, “Honestly, I would suggest you start anew with your elves. Release all the ones in your service, but make sure to make up some sort of excuse to the House elf offices so they can get new employment after, lest they come for you anyway, and just get a new batch you treat well that won't have bad memories of you.”

Lord Malfoy smiles tensely, “An excellent suggestion. I shall have to do that.”

Dobby ducks his head to try to hide his smile. He's not very successful, but given how desperate most House elves are to serve, that he's happy at the idea seems to cinch things for the Malfoys.

She herself is utterly baffled, so she can't blame Lucius, who had dryly told her she may as well call him by his first name given how much he'd be working with her from now on, for reaching out when the news of Sirius’ escape reaches them right before they were going to make their move and push the whole mess with Sirius to trial. She'd told him exactly what she and Remus had concluded, that something had clearly come up, and whatever it was, it had made him decide he needed to get free and he needed to do it now.

It concerned her, what could have possibly driven him to it. Arguably, he could've just… not been able to take being in Azkaban anymore, but whatever method he'd used to escape… Given that it wasn't anything like him somehow managing to get a wand off a guard or something, he should have had access to whatever it was before. It was the whole reason she and Remus had concluded that something had to have happened.

She currently lacks the information to even begin to guess what it could be though, so for now she was focusing on other things. It was why she was currently having Remus look over some work of hers. He has a very odd look on his face, “I don't see anything wrong with it, you seemed to have once again reached beyond the skill level someone your age really ought to have and altered the ritual that was within the Potter archives flawlessly. But Calanthe, what do you even need this for?”

She shifts, “It's for something for Hei.”

He smiles in bemusement, “Why am I not surprised. Honestly, I should have guessed.”

She blushes, “Not everything I make is for him!”

He laughs, “No, but he often ends up benefiting from them anyway!” He shakes his head, “I suppose you've already put together your schematic for what you're making specifically, rather than just the changes to the ritual itself? Because I know you, you would've wanted me and your parents’ portrait,” He lifts his hand to gesture vaguely to the wall behind him, “to check that too, and you'd prefer to be able to get them both done at once if the ritual tweaking is good, even if it meant you needed to rewrite it if it wasn't.”

Her flush deepens, and she wordlessly holds it out. As he looks it over, holding it so her parents’ portrait can see, all three of their amusement slowly evaporates, and her anxiety skyrockets. She barely waits until she sees Remus seem to finish from the way his eyes unfocus, “Is it that bad?”

Remus looks up, “Hmm? Oh, no. It's not bad, excellent work really, it's more… You really don't fuck around when it comes to Hei.”

She blinks rapidly, “Huh?”

Her dad's portrait gives her a bemused look, “Calanthe, sweetheart, that thing… if you guys do have a romantic bond and eventually have kids together, it will end up as an Heirloom. And not one to sneeze at either. Honestly, it may very well end up as valued as the Invisibility Cloak…”

She fidgets in embarrassment, “W-well, I mean, I did that additional rune work that'll go on it, and part of that's strength will depend on if Horace can modify the Dragon Thunder potion the way I asked, but a good chunk of it comes from the materials I managed to get my hands on…”

Her mom shakes her head, “Maybe, but there's a counter argument that it doesn't matter that you got it if it didn't occur to you to use it like this.”

She does her best to fight off the way her face wants to make a valiant attempt at mimicking a tomato in that moment. If it's as good as they're saying though, it'll be useful to Hei when it's all done, though she won't be able to do the ritual and see how well it turns out until All Hallow's Eve.