Chapter 20
It seemed that he came just when lunch was being served. The great hall was quite busy and when he sat down on his seat at the table, he was bombarded with questions and wishes of wellbeing about him and Bellatrix, Druella in particular seemed very concerned. Tom still didn't know why Druella and Bellatrix seemed to get along a bit too well in his opinion. Sometimes during lunch, Elevyn asked him whether they would still be holding their meeting tonight. Tom almost forgot with all that happened that he had planned a meeting with his knights after the hogsmeade trip. Upon hearing that, Walburga perked up as she was curious with attending. Tom decided to not cancel the meeting, since he was busy with the artifact, they were not going to discuss anything much really except maybe what happened which was just fine mind you , with Walburga around. It was the perfect opportunity to have his promise to her fulfilled. It will be held the afternoon just after dinner. He agreed with them that meeting was not cancelled and told Walburga she could come, giving her something she could be cocky about. He ate his lunch thinking of how boring the meeting was going to be....oh how wrong he was.
Once the meeting's time came, Tom headed towards that secluded part of the common room that is also hidden by a door they can close at will, it's the place he chose for the meeting. As he was walking, he kept fiddiling with the artifact inside his robes. Once he entered the room, it seemed there was already some people there. It didn't take long to hear a knock at the door, it was Walburga and to Tom's irritation she dragged Cygnus and Druella in, probably to brag to them. They themselves didn't look confortable to be here . Tom wouldn't have let it slide had he not himself been curious about Druella and even sometimes Cygnus' relationship's with Bellatrix, so it turned out just right to Tom's favor that they came to the meeting, much more actually useful than Walburga herself though he would have to punish her for it later. He was right that Walburga was going to be annoying... halfway through the meeting, she kept making these bored noises or intervening annoyingly like she cared little for what they were doing.
"What is that?" Tom ignored her question, probably a stupid one like the many she asked today.
What Tom didn't expect her to wave her wand and get the artifact to fly out of his robes getting the attention of everybody. That absolutely irritated Tom, he was not going to let it slide and was going to teach her a lesson she wouldn't forget when the artifact reacted once it landed on her hands. It started spinning aggressively letting sparks around the room. Everyone drew their wands as they stood a good 10 feet away from it. Tom put even more spells on the locked door, he didn't want whatever he were to witness to get out of here. He didn't expect that he would have a result out of Walburga's stupid behavior.
"What's that?" Nott asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
As if responding to his question, the artifact started emitting a fog that concentrated in the middle that then started to show images that were indistinguisable with how fast they were like when apparating. They were spinning fast before settling on three barely distinguishable scenes. The first one was in what looked like a ministry hall where a fight seemed to be breaking out between maybe what were aurors and hooded black figures. Tom's clenched his fist when he then recognized Bellatrix and so did the others. Her face and demeanor was full of madness, delight and cruel glee on her face as she fought her way in the ministry before she turned and cast an unforgivable on a man who looked very similar to her. Upon being hit, the man fell into the veil which made her break into giggles and sing in a haunting way....
"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!"
The scene changed fast to the same man that was killed standing with what looked like a Potter and pointing at a family tree, it seemed to be the Black's. He said "My family with their pureblood mania" before pointing at a scorched spot where the name Sirius was right under....Walburga and Orion. The scene switched to him then saying "My unhinged cousin" before pointing to a woman in the tapistry.... The name was Bellatrix Black married to Rodolphus Lestrange under...Druella Rosier and Cygnus Black. The scene changed once again showing Bellatrix and a scared goblin mumbling..."Madam...madam Lestrange".
At last the artifact stopped spinning and landed on the table noiselessly like it didn't shatter Tom's reality. He simply couldn't believe what happened and what he witnessed. All his mind could go to was Bellatrix's warning to not seek to know more and to...who was that man he saw that night exactly? His brain didn't dare to go there as he did best to keep sober in order to take control of the moment and what helped break him out of revery was Druella's cry.
"Cygnus...Cygnus! What was that?" Upon hearing that, Tom was quick to move to the artifact and hide it in his robes, just to make sure that no one got of it. Bellatrix was right. He needed to get it right back to Gringotts, it was a foolish idea to leave it around. With him hiding the artifact out of sight, it seemed like it broke the stillness in the room. Nobody could believe what they witnessed, they didn't dare to. Only Walburga it seems was ever the oblivious woman, call it stupidity or ignorance but she did say
"Did she time travel? No wonder that bitch favored you at the beginning of the year"
That angered Druella enough for it to overcome her surprise.
"Don't you dare call her bitch!"
"What else do you want me to call her? Did you not see the murderous hound you bred? Likes to go around killing family members?"
"Well, at least I bred no blood traitor. If she killed him, I call it pruning"
A loud fight broke out among them with words each more vicious than the other before Walburga said as she made a motion to walk towards the door
"She dares to kill my son? Do you know now that I have my way where that criminal is going to go? straight up to...no probably straight back to Azkaban!"
"You will not" Tom hissed. Before she could even open her mouth to retort or raise her wand that she held in her hand, he disarmed her and viciously invaded her mind. He encountered resistance but he didn't care and invaded ruthlessly despite how painful her cries were. He broke down her shields carelessly before wiping every bit of the memory of tonight and replacing them by tampered memories. Nobody dared to intervene during the whole ordeal, not even Cygnus. Once he got out of her mind, she was laying limp and unconscious on the floor. He hit her with an additional stupefy for good measure in case she were to wake up during the rest of the meeting. After he did so, Druella looked at him gratefully. She didn't need to, Tom would be the first in very hot water were Bellatrix to be discovered as....what she was and were anybody to find out...
"I can't believe all this time our DADA teacher was Cygnus' daughter. Did you see what they were doing over there before she killed her cousin? Seemed to be a war of some sort." Avery said . Cygnus seemed to cringe when hearing the word daughter, he seemed to not be over the fact that someone twice his age and who was teaching him was his own child. Tom couldn't blame him, he couldn't digest it either and he himself needed time to think. It was really awful that that many people got to witness that phenomenon but Tom needed to control the situation as much as possible but he couldn't to each one what he did to Walburga, so he ordered that each and everyone makes a vow to not speak of the matter without his and only his express consent. There were quite a few who were hesitant, after all even if they were his knights, this matter was very big , bigger than what they really still saw as not yet a powerful figure. However, he did catch one of them to make an example out of and reminded them of what he was capable of before they were all scared into agreeing. He didn't really need to pressure Druella and Cygnus that much to agree to it as they knew it was for the best.
"Wait, Doesn't that mean that she fought to death with her own great aunt? Does she have ....a strange hobby of some sort?"
" what do you think she....changed?"
This brought a dreadful silence to the room. Tom couldn't blame them, the idea that somebody had such power and knowledge was already concerning enough. If he thought previously that Bellatrix was doing a poor job at appearing sane in school, then this artifact showed him how wrong he was. The fact that the one holding such power is someone so unstable would be enough to scare even Dumbledore he was sure...but to Tom, it simply couldn't be better, it was in fact an unbelievably lucky roll of the dice when it came to the person involved. If his suspicions were correct...then that apparition that he previously hated turned out to be the best proof of loyalty and a guarantee towards a power he never imagined he could wield and also help him avoid pitfalls like....losing his mind. He shuddered when he remembered how he ...how that man looked.