Group Bonding Activity
Following Thea’s revelations, the pair moved on to discussing Thea’s knowledge of Tom that she had learned from the books and her own research which included her previous trip to Little Hangleton. The lingering flames continued to spark inside Tom and showed no signs of death even as time ticked away, a welcomed warmth coursing through his veins that comforted him and emitted his sense of peace to the surrounding air that he was almost certain Thea could feel it. She had created a space that made him feel safe and he could only wonder how his eyes looked as he gazed at her; adoringly fond, perhaps? That same emotion reflected similarly in her eyes and, for the first time ever, he kept the eye contact not to assert confidence nor to read minds, but because he yearned to be the subject of those feelings she held. As his mind raced with appreciation for Thea – the flames crackled stronger with every thought – he hadn’t even realised that he had subconsciously tuned out his other senses until he saw the amusement etched onto her face and took notice of her upturned lips that had stopped moving.
Tom blinked twice in rapid succession and Thea took that as an indication that he was returning to reality. “You feeling alright there, Tom?”
“Apologies, I hadn’t meant to get distracted.”
She waved his apologies off easily. “Happens to the best of us.” Her unfailing kindness only pulled out a slight smile from Tom which only widened her own. “As I was saying about the Riddles, they’re filthy rich. They own much of the land in and around Little Hangleton which means they’ve got plenty of properties and the potential to create more. So, hypothetically, if they had a son, their son would inherit all their assets as per the law. And hence, hypothetically, if you were to show up on their doorsteps one day without the Trace tracking you, just having a chat with the family could, say, make them accept you? You do, after all, resemble Tom Riddle Senior so, what would stop them from doing so? Then, once they sadly die in a tragic accident or of old age somehow – hypothetically of course – you would have full reign over the use of these assets either in the muggle world or the wizarding world. Let’s say, for example, a home that cares for orphaned or unwanted magical children? With proper and humane adoption, foster, and care practices, of course.”
Thea gave Tom some time for him to jot down the ideas and his thoughts onto his notebook. Only when he had paused in his writing did she pipe up again. “I do advice against the Imperius spell, however. There’s a handful of people in the manor and keeping up the curse consistently for all of them – at least until their memories have been tweaked – would only drain your magic before you can even tap into their minds.”
“What do you suggest, then?”
“The Confundus Charm.” Thea grinned when she received a sceptical eyebrow raise from Tom and continued, “it has – or rather, it would have in the nineties – worked successfully on the Goblet of Fire with no hassle. It’s an underestimated charm, really. It’ll work nicely to confuse the inhabitants of the estate enough to hear you out and be rendered absolutely defenceless against you manipulating their memories. The spell is a one-time-cast spell so you wouldn’t need to maintain it for an extended period of time, and hence, it’s a more viable option for your case – at least I think so.”
Tom ran the idea in his head a couple of times before coming to the same conclusion as Thea. His hands moved continuously as Thea proceeded to relay everything she knew about Little Hangleton and the Riddles that would immensely help his plans, from the identities of the staffs of Riddle Manor to the stories she had heard circulating in the small town.
“So, my mother had thought that he would love her if he found out that she was birthing his babe… and hence, she ceased bewitching him with Amortentia.” Tom had only repeated Thea’s words and shot her a bemused look when she frowned. “Is that not right?”
“No- I mean, yes! That is what I said… but I just remembered that it was simply a speculation from Dumbledore – and perhaps Morfin might have thought it too; claimed that it was more likely that she had used a love potion than the Imperius Curse because it would have been more romantic in her eyes. If that was the case, however, I do wonder where she would’ve gotten the potion or ingredients from.”
Tom gave a hum as he, too, questioned the circumstances. “The Gaunts certainly had no assets to spare, and you mentioned that Merope sold the locket only once she had been abandoned. She couldn’t have easily found pearl dust nor powdered moonstone either which meant that she would have had to have purchased them somewhere.”
“And those aren’t cheap goods! Moreover, there’s no record of her attending Hogwarts nor had there been any news of her enrolment in any other schools, so she must have been home-taught magic. Marvolo wasn’t exactly the best in spellwork but if there was anything he was at least somewhat proficient at, they would be jinxes and curses.”
“Like the Imperius Curse.”
“Exactly.”
They shared a look of deep thought for a moment before Thea popped the bubble with a wave of her hand as she shrugged, “either way – whether you had been born under a love potion or not – you’re still very much a whole person who can love. Just as love potions can’t manipulate genuine infatuation, Magic has no right to meddle with a person’s gift to love. If you have to learn, then so be it! I’ll teach you myself if Dumbledore is so adamant that Magic conquers love – which is ironic considering how much he goes on about love being the strongest power of all.”
Thea – bless her – averted her eyes and stared into space as she nonchalantly muttered nonsense about ticking off her mental list of topics she should discuss with Tom as a way to stall time for the latter, who had gone unresponsive. His hand had stilled in place with an inked quill in his grip above his notebook while his eyes glazed over as he retracted into his mind unintentionally. Teach me herself? What does that entail exactly…What was it that she had said earlier?
‘If given the opportunity to have grown up in a loving household where there was someone who loved them, these children would have learned that love was a beautiful thing, not just a potion that led to disasters.’
Hence, to learn to love, was to be loved? So, if Thea had just volunteered to teach Tom to love, had she also given her say that she would willingly love him? Did she even know what she had just insinuated? …Perhaps he was thinking too much about it.
Regardless, the thought spun continuously in his head persistently and he was forced to be subjected to the idea that there was someone out there who thought that he could be loved and wasn’t too opposed to love him herself; and it wasn’t just anybody, it was Thea. The girl who constantly reminded him of home despite the fact that he had never had one to turn to for comfort. The only person in his life, thus far, who had invoked new feelings in him that he used to deem plebeian and worthless. The more he grappled with the concept of being loved by Thea, the more he found the notion appealing but unfathomable. After all, why would someone as sweet as her want him?
What would it be like, he wondered, to be loved by her? Then, her voice rang in his head and the image suddenly didn’t seem so impossible.
‘‘Cause I like you, of course.’
To have said that even with the other-worldly knowledge of his mistakes and flaws… To want to help him because she believed that he deserved it…
It poked his mind that perhaps – just maybe – he was already starting to learn.
A minute or a few had already passed by the time he had escaped the maze of tempting thoughts. He cleared his throat to signal his readiness for the conversation to continue and Thea paused in her mumble of deriding Dumbledore to turn back to him. “Oh, right! Where were we?”
Tom quirked the corner of his lips up amusedly at having caught the last bits of her contempt for the transfigurations professor. “We’ve just discussed the nature of my birth.”
Thea snapped her fingers in remembrance. “Of course! And with your birth, comes your status as the heir to the Slytherin name.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m still not too convinced that I’ll be accepted to hold the title.”
“That’s fair,” Thea shrugged, “it has been a concerning number of generations since the last time the House had accepted a member so I see where your worries lie. I suppose, we’ll just have to see how your meeting with Gringotts go once you’ve come of age.”
“Speaking of meetings, may I trouble you for a favour?”
The plain innocence and lack of apprehension in Thea’s expression as she indicated for him to continue was doubtlessly something he would have to get used to – and the others would have to too, if the favour he was about to ask for goes well. “Seeing as I now know that you aren’t against our ambitions, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time to arrange a proper introductory meeting between you and the rest of the men? Your insights have been tremendously helpful and I figured that the others might demand for the source herself if I were to update them with the changes in the plan.”
“Oh?” Eyes wide in surprise at the unexpected proposition, Thea rolled her head to the right as she considered the potential outcome of such a situation. She would get an opportunity to say her piece to the boys and she could see for herself just the type of people they were. In conclusion, no drawbacks! “Yeah, I could do that! When and where would work for all of you?”
“This place has been fairly private, especially with the addition of the privacy ward, so I was thinking…”
They spent the final couple of minutes planning for an appropriate setting to conduct the meeting at before wrapping up their own current discussion so that they didn’t miss dinner seeing as they had already taken up an ample bit of the evening by then. Almost a week of seeing the new norm of the pair walking together had eased up the rumours going around the mill but that hadn’t stopped her year-mates from hypothesising scandalous tales about them whenever they came across the ‘mismatched’ partners. Nonetheless, both objects of the stories had no issue ignoring the whispers; though Thea often found herself receiving side-eyes wherever she went, it mattered not if she was in her dormitory or in the courtyard. On the other hand, the snakes knew better than to treat Tom – and by extension, Thea – the same way. If Thea had noticed that there were significantly less glares from the Slytherins, she shrugged it off as a mutual understanding that the green and silver house, too, had had their fair share of receiving unjustified contempt.
Following their shared double potions class the next day, Thea and Tom led the way to the library as Avery, Rosier, and Mulciber tagged along behind them. Tom had extended his favour to his circle the previous night and they had all expressed their anticipation in getting to know the girl that had caught Tom’s eyes – not that they were frank with the last bit. As expected, when the group had made it to the same plenty-deserted rectangular table in the library, Lestrange and Nott were already present and sat across each other. The boys shared greetings as Mulciber and Avery joined to the right of Lestrange, Rosier sat left to Nott and was joined by Thea to his own left, while Tom headed one end of the table adjacent to Avery and Thea. As the one who had assembled the group, everyone looked to Tom to commence the conversation.
“I thought proper introductions were due and have, therefore, set this up. Thea,” the aforementioned girl perked up at Tom’s call and she turned to face the others when Tom gestured around, “in front of you, in clockwise direction, is Lazarus Avery, Dylan Mulciber, Eugene Lestrange, Gallagher Nott, and Edward Rosier. Lestrange and Nott are seventh-years while the others, you’ve seen in shared classes.” Then, he redirected his hand towards Thea, “boys, this is Theana Grace.”
“It is wonderful to meet the heirs to the most ancient houses of Wizarding Britain.”
Caught off-guard at Thea’s use of their jargon and her purposeful omittance of the ‘noble’ title, the boys had to swiftly rethink their responses to reply accordingly. Some ended up stumbling over their words at the hesitance of discarding one aspect of their house title while others kept it in nevertheless. Once the greetings were done, the formalities went away with it and Lestrange addressed Tom, who had erected a privacy ward around them. “What’s on the agenda today? You spoke of nothing last night and only mentioned that all would be revealed here.”
Tom shared a glance with Thea. “As you all know, there’s been a halt in our plans due to Thea’s unexpected arrival at the end of last year and ever since, we had yet to determine if she was an ally or a foe.” At this, Thea sported a sheepish grin. “That has changed as of yesterday and after much deliberation with Thea, the plan has changed. As it turns out, she is more than a mere ally and I imagined that you would all request to speak with her had I, alone, shared with you the new plan. Thus, here she is in advance.”
Clear suspicion was shared amongst those unfamiliar with Thea despite their unwavering trust in Tom. “And how has the plan changed?”
Eyes followed Tom’s as he looked towards Thea. The pair had discussed how they were to approach this beforehand and, as agreed, Tom had given Thea the autonomy to speak. Thea clasped her hands on the table and started with a harmless smile, “horcruxes;” Rosier nearly spluttered beside her, “nasty bit of soul magic right there, wouldn’t you say so? There’s not much that’s been written about it seeing as Herpo the Foul was – or is – the only one in history’s record who has created one. In the paraphrased words of Adalbert Waffling’s first Fundamental Laws of Magic, messing around with your own soul breeds negative consequences one probably can’t even fathom. In other words: if you fuck around, you find out.”
Rosier wasn’t alone in choking on air out of sheer astoundment over Thea’s candour this time. Having heard her vulgarity previously, Tom was only slightly nonplussed. Brushing off the reactions she had gotten, Thea simply continued, “as it so happens, I’ve seen the effects of horcrux magic on a person before and it really isn’t pretty.”
Then she regaled the circumstances in which horcruxes had destroyed the brightest of minds and had rendered him a tyrant consumed with blood purity ideals despite his half-blood identity. She told of how the creation of such objects had drove him insane and inhumane in every way while still retaining the mentality of a teen despite the decades that had passed, the way he had gained an obsession with a mere boy just because a prophecy – that he hadn’t heard – had spelled out his doom – which had come true, no thanks to his own actions – and how he had been so- “-stupid! I mean- really?! If you were to come face to face with a baby who you aim to kill, what would you do?”
The sudden detour of her discourse combined with her heated tone took all of them by surprise and Avery, being the one who Thea had locked eyes with at that moment, could only answer truthfully. “The Killing Curse?”
“What is it with y- no! You lift the baby up and drop them out the damn window! Or better yet, just to counter the possibility that accidental magic may levitate them down safely, you snap their necks and get it over with! Honestly! If you get the chance to meet the person who you think would cause your downfall, why would you use something as unpredictable as magic?! Granted, in the tyrant’s defence, no one could have seen the ‘love is magic’ bull coming – which I really do think is just blood protection magic – but I’m telling you, if you ever encounter such a situation, you might be better off just dealing practical, physical damage. After all, the night the boy had killed the tyrant, the tyrant had actually hit the boy with another Killing Curse and- voila! He didn’t die! But of course, the tyrant couldn’t have known he had come back to life because the Killing Curse leaves no physical signs that harm has been inflicted – beneficial in some cases, not in this situation. If only the boy had been stabbed or- I don’t know, gutted? The tyrant could’ve easily seen that the boy had been very much alive when he healed up magically; or perhaps the boy would actually remain dead if the damage couldn’t be reversed – the Killing Curse doesn’t exactly affect the victim physically, besides stopping their life, so there was nothing that had to be ‘reversed’ and the boy could just up and go! Not to mention his idiotic lau- wait. That’s not- what was I talking abou-”
It was only then that Thea had realised her digression of topic and she clicked her mouth shut immediately. Silence fell upon the table at the cessation of Thea’s rant and as the nearby clock ticked away, Thea felt the creeping heat approach her cheeks and ears and subconsciously brought a hand up to shield her fluster from the gobsmacked faces around her. Averting her eyes only made matters worse when she ended up turning to her left; upon her sights landing on Tom, she was reminded of the fact that the person she had been disparaging about had once been his future self and she had to use up all her willpower to not bash her head against the nearest surface. No drawbacks, my ass- I’ve made a fool of myself.
Tom, meanwhile, could only regard her with desire and need lighting his every cell aflame; now more than ever, he wanted her to teach him how to love so that he could love her in all the ways she deserved and nothing less. Salazar, he yearned to give her everything he could provide and more. Oh, how he longed for her to love him for- nothing could ever amount to her willingly-given love.
He had spent the previous night with thoughts of what could have been plaguing his mind and, by morning time, he had learnt to separate Voldemort’s identity from his own current life. Every – justified – critique that Thea had just thrown at Voldemort was of no offence to Tom and he, himself, agreed with her perspective the more she shared about the plain stupid rules that Voldemort had played by. Tom’s appreciation for her only grew the more she condemned his alternate life’s future actions because she had been unashamed in conveying her disappointment for the un-whole soul of a man and yet she could look at Tom with utter pride and admiration.
Thea was a blessing in person and- Merlin could not save him if he was to fuck up after all that she had done out of the goodness of her heart.
A clear of her throat and a quiet, shy, “sorry,” brought the entire table back into reality from their own respective thoughts but the silence remained as everyone struggled to piece together their words.
“You’re alright, love.”
The flummoxed expression of five men stood no chance in swaying Tom’s composure against the embarrassed but grateful countenance of the one woman in front of him. He countered her smile with a reassuring one of his own and turned to regard the others with a raised eyebrow. That seemed to snap them out of their speechlessness – whilst simultaneously adding into their incredulity – and they switched their attentions back to Thea.
“Say, who… exactly… is this person you’ve been talking about? The entirety of your story wouldn’t have been swept under a rug and yet records have named Herpo as the only person who has ever dipped into horcrux magic.”
The return to the topic in hand quelled the flush in her cheeks as Thea grinned playfully and extended a hand in Tom’s direction. “Who else could it be, if not Tom had I not interfered with fate, of course!”
The ludicrousness of the situation was incomparable to any other events in the boys’ life as they stared at Thea for a brief moment, before rotating their heads to face Tom in comical unison, the absurdity clear in their eyes only intensifying when Tom kept up his unbothered façade. With a casual shrug and two words, he sent everyone into a ruckus.
“It’s true.”
“What the actual fuck do you mean-”
“You’re not actually being serious.”
“How-”
“Since when were you a tyrant?!”
“You failed to kill a baby?!”
When the noise didn’t die down after the first round of bizarre accusations, Tom called out with a grimace, “alright- settle down, boys- settle down!”
Thea had to stifle her laughter at the obvious restrain the boys had to pull up to quieten down and faked naivete when all of them sent her varying degrees of suspicious looks except Tom, who only watched her with fond exasperation.
“As impossible as it sounds, yes, Thea was referring to an alternate me in those recounts. Just as she has claimed, had she not barged into fate’s space and woven the thread herself, I would have gone down the exact route that would have made me an insane, diabolical tyrant.”
“‘Lord Voldemort’, so he would call himself,” another giggle almost left Thea at the cringe Tom gave and she settled, instead, into a wide beam, “I’d tell you the inspiration behind the name but it would send me to an early grave at the hands of dear Tom.”
Without a pause, Tom shot back easily, “oh, I could never harm you, darling.”
“Is that so, sweetheart?”
There were certainly more terms of endearment shared between them in the span of the past five minutes than in the entire week prior. Judging by the softness of Tom’s gaze and the upturn of Thea’s lips, however, there was no doubt, even to the spectators, that the pair had found a fancy to this new level of familiarity in their relationship. They were quick to remember their audience, howbeit, and they resumed their discussion with a fresh lightness in their psyche.
Thea spared them a light-hearted apology, “sorry for the mystification caused by my presence thus far, boys. That was unintended.”
“But- I still don’t understand how you could have known all that!”
Mulciber had been the first to handle disregarding – for the meantime – the new side to Tom that Thea had brought out and had expressed his befuddlement. The rest of the snakes proceeded to follow suit and mumbled in agreement at the unanswered mystery. “How did you know?”
“Oh, I’m a clairvoyant.”
The indifferent manner in which Thea had finally cleared up the misunderstanding made it so that her words almost slipped past the boys’ comprehension. She received blank stares all around and only cocked her head to the side which snapped them all out of their daze.
“No shot-”
“Alright, we’re not doing this again- yes, she’s a clairvoyant. I’ve checked with her and she’s proven herself trustworthy.”
Tom had been the one to suggest disguising her source of information as a divination vision she had gotten to minimise the risk of her secret, of remembering her past life where the current world was fictional, falling into the wrong hands. Seers were highly sought after in the magical world and there existed people who would go to far lengths just to obtain one such gifted being – how much more would Thea’s circumstances be coveted by those people? While Tom had vouched for the boys’ occlumency competence, he had deemed it safer to divulge only a part of her true nature and Thea was all the more agreeable when she considered the possibility of some mad magical scientist kidnapping her to dissect and experiment on her.
“Right. Okay. So- Grace is a seer, who has seen the bleak future in her foresight abilities, and had decided to prevent it all from happening- by giving you book recommendations?! You’ve seen how grim and bloody the future could be and you chose to stop it by sending a note!”
“Well- if you put it that way…” A lopsided smile painted Thea’s lips as she thought about her actions in hindsight before shrugging offhandedly. “And it worked, didn’t it?”
They all looked at her in disbelief but relented at her proven success. “I mean- I guess…”
Now that the long-awaited clarification of her intentions had been declared, the group soon moved on to divulging the newly renovated plans that Thea and Tom had concocted.
“…hence, we will continue to seek out people who would side with our mission in the shadows for the meantime. If I do end up inheriting the Slytherin lordship come the end of the year, we won’t have to stay as hidden as I’ll imagine the ministry would call for my attendance in the Wizengamot as the lordship would come with a seat at the court. Following my coming of age, too, will be my visit to the Riddles where I will have them officially name me a successor to all their assets.”
Tom paused unhesitatingly when he noticed a frown on Thea and gave her his full attention. “Is there something wrong, love?”
“Hm?” Having been listening to his words intently, Thea belatedly processed his unexpected address of her. “Oh- no, it’s nothing- okay well, not nothing actually, but…” She gave herself a momentary break to fully form her words and inwardly thanked Tom for his patience. “Okay, so- when you mention that you’ll seek people out, do they include women?”
A couple of blinks from everyone told Thea all that she needed to know. She gave an audible wince but nodded in understanding. “Right- so- this may sound biased considering… you know, I’m a girl and all… but I do actually come from an objective standpoint when I say that I highly suggest you recruit the ladies too.”
That earned her a mix of intrigued and doubtful looks. Nott was the latter when he asked, “they don’t exactly have any influence in the stance of the houses, though. But then again, you’ve yet to make an unreasonable point so far.”
“Ah, but that’s not quite right, is it? Let’s say, while you, men, are chatting politics in a soirée, what do the ladies talk about?”
“Gossips?”
“And how do you feel about Simon Yaxley?”
“A disgrace!” Just as Thea had expected, an outburst came from Lestrange. “Honestly, how could he?! To treat his wife so violently and callously, has he no sense?! That’s no man right there – he’s an absolute disappointment to his house.”
Rosier piped up next, “and he still has the gall to request for the other houses’ support for his intention to campaign as the next minister. He should be thanking Merlin that his in-laws opted not to avenge his wife for all the disgusting acts he’s done.”
The others looked just as furious as the two men as they nodded along. An expression of content flitted past Thea’s face and she internally patted herself for a job well done in luring them all into her trap. “Yaxley had all the support he needed prior to this ordeal, didn’t he?” When they confirmed affirmatively, she continued, “so he had lost everything when it was revealed that he was a domestic abuser… enlighten me, how had you been made aware of Lady Yaxley’s distress?”
“Well, my mother brought it up at dinner- oh…”
The others looked to Avery curiously when he lit up in realisation mid-sentence. Before he could resume, however, Mulciber cut in, “oh, wait, was that also after Lady Black’s tea party? Because my mother did that too! Our fathers had a Wizengamot meeting the next day and word had already spread about Lord Yaxley by then somehow- oh… wow.”
More confusion.
“Now that you mentioned it, that was also the same day I learnt of Yaxley’s misdeeds! My father had gotten so pissed off that he nearly flooed over to Yaxley’s that night!”
“Hold on- I think we’re in the same boat?”
“Same here! What’s going on?”
Thea took pride in the approving smile Tom shot her as she basked in the disorientation of the boys. “Boys, boys, boys.” That recaptured everyone’s attention. “What do your experiences that day have in common?”
“…Lady Black’s tea party,” Mulciber replied sheepishly.
Dots began connecting in the rest of the boys’ head and they turned to Thea, dumbfounded. Rosier then adds in, “wait, how did you even know about it?!”
“Hm? I didn’t.” Thea snorted a laugh when some of them dropped their jaws. “You said it yourself; the ladies gossip. I figured Lady Yaxley would’ve confided in a fellow lady of her status or higher, seeing as men tend to dismiss women a lot,” At least they had the shame to not argue against her pointed look, “and the news about Yaxley did appear out of nowhere, so it made sense that the mothers could have devised a plan to overturn his standing overnight. That was all just my theory though; and you’ve kindly provided the proof.”
Silence, then- “what are you?”
Thea shrugged. “A woman.”
When no one had more to add in – too caught up in questioning their beliefs – Thea took the opportunity to add oil into the fire. “Honestly, you boys would not survive one day in high society in the heels of a lady. To live through the circulating slanders and scandals that eye your every move and come out of the battlefield winning? That takes impressive skills. Those innocent fronts that hide schemes and strategies could fool even Grindelwald – and have, mind you – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got blackmail over a handful of people each. These women have had etiquette drilled into them by other women ever since they were babies. Experiences on top of experiences have been passed on to them and they have established their own social circles even by this age- really, you should consider yourself blessed if they would even give you the time of the day.”
The questions and doubts came in after that and Thea had no trouble deflecting them on the fly. The focus eventually shifted to inbreeding – which Thea had more than a couple words to say about – and then they had somehow started to discuss squibs.
“Oh, I’ve actually included that in the list of texts that I’ve suggested to Tom.”
“Funny, I had planned to bring that up this weekend too.”
“I guess I may as well make your life easier and tackle that now while you’ve got me to help you. Right, boys, are you aware of the evidence that has traced muggleborns back to pureblood lineages? Research has suggested that the more inbred you are, the likelier you’d turn out to be a squib, and that muggleborns are simply descendants of these people whose inherited magic has activated after generations of staying dormant in the blood.”
Needless to say, Thea and Tom had found themselves busy with changing the purebloods’ inherent denial and prejudice that evening and they ended up having an interlude when the bell had rung and the five of them had to leave for transfiguration. Thea sent Tom her best wishes – and amusement – when they parted ways for dinner as she would be unable to support him when Tom had to handle resuming the discussion afterwards in the Slytherin common room.
All in all, the meeting had gone great! And when Thea noticed the boys engaging in conversation with Druella Rosier and Walburga Black later that week, she felt a kindling warmth in her heart.