Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Shared Flame	By : TheLadyMiya Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 58981 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I do not make any money writing this.

Chapter List
- 43
- 44
- 45
Happy New Year! Sorry for the delay in updating.

As always, I want to thank my awesome betas, Nerys and Shan84. The story just wouldn’t be the same without you!

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Enjoy!

Chapter 43
Voldemort had just started to prepare the Polyjuice Potion when he heard one of the girls move on the floor. He hadn’t even had time to move them yet. It had only been five minutes since he killed Mizuro, and the Aurors would no doubt be swarming over them in any minute after all the magic the fairies did on their house. They lived close to Muggles after all.
“Mum?” It was Althea. “Mum? What’s going—Who are you? What’s going on?”
Voldemort cursed. Now Althea would no doubt start screaming when she saw him. He didn’t have time for that. “Althea,” he said in Parseltongue. “It’s me. I’m just not looking like I used to. I’ll take a potion and—”
Althea’s scream interrupted him. He turned around, wand out; ready to defend. But her focus was on Mizuro’s corpse. Right. Most people were disturbed by corpses. He walked over and sat down next to her. Of course, this only made Althea look at him and her screams became louder.
“Stop it,” Voldemort said, really not having the patience for this. “It’s me. Look.”
He changed into his Animagus form. At once, Althea’s screaming stopped. She stared at him in shock. In his snake form, he made his body rise so his head was at the same level as hers. Since she was a Parselmouth, they could still communicate.
“See?” he said. “The fairies changed me when we got you back. They were very evil.”
“Daddy, what happened?” Althea asked in Parseltongue, sounding scared. “Are Mum and Alex hurt?”
“Not really. We had to use a lot of magic to get the fairies away, your mum passed out. But she’s okay, she just needs to rest for a bit. As does your sister.”
“What happened to Ken?”
“The fairies killed him,” Voldemort lied effortlessly.
Althea’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“Because he was stopping them from taking you. They were using your magic to try and kill us, Althea,” Voldemort explained, his tone serious.
Althea looked as if she didn’t want to believe him. “The fairies are nice to me! They wouldn’t kill anyone! You are lying!”
It was hard to scold when you were a snake, but Voldemort tried his best. “Althea, they were using you. All they wanted was your magic so they could come back to this world. They were eating you alive.”
“Stop lying! Morgana is my friend!” Althea got to her feet. “You are the one that is evil! Morgana told me! You’re Voldemort!”
Voldemort didn’t see any use in denying it, so he turned back to his human form. “Be that as it may, but I’m still your father and you will listen to me. The fairies killed Ken and tried to kill both your mother and I just to get to you. But none of this would have happened if you had just gone to Hogwarts like you were supposed to!”
Althea had tears in her eyes. “The fairies are teaching me much better magic than Hogwarts ever could!”
“The fairies just wanted to get their powers back, and they used you to get it,” Voldemort growled. “They tricked you!”
“Stop yelling.” Hermione had awakened, and she did not look happy. “I don’t know what you are saying, but I can hear that you are yelling, so stop it.”
Althea ran over to her mum. No doubt she thought that Hermione would save her from her mean father. Voldemort rolled his eyes.
“Mum, he said that the fairies are evil and that they killed Ken, but he is lying and he is Voldemort, the fairies told me that,” Althea said quickly.
“Killed who?” Hermione asked and rose from the ground, looking around. Her eyes fell on the corpse. She gasped and looked at Voldemort. He gave her a look of warning.
Hermione sighed and turned back to Althea. “Yes, your father is Voldemort, but he isn’t lying, sweetie. The fairies were evil, and they didn’t want to let us see you. They were nice to you because they needed your magic to break free. You know how they couldn’t touch anything before? With your magic, they could. Your father and I had to stop them before they destroyed the world. I’m sorry. I know they were your friends, but they were not nice creatures.”
More tears rose in Althea’s eyes. “But he is the evil one! You told me!”
“It’s complicated, love,” Hermione said and wiped some tears from Althea’s cheeks. “We’ll sit down and talk about it, and you can ask whatever you want, but right now, we need to fix everything the fairies destroyed and help Alexandra. She saved your life.”
Althea hesitated and looked down at Alexandra. “What’s wrong with her?”
“We had to remove all of the fairy magic from your body, and Alexandra said we could use her magic since it’s so similar to yours. Come on, let’s get her up to her room, where she’ll be more comfortable,” Hermione said and cast Voldemort a questioning look.
Voldemort made a gesture towards the Polyjuice Potion and added, “Make sure they both fall asleep.”
Hermione looked surprised for a second, until the realisation dawned on her. When the Aurors came, he didn’t want Althea and Alexandra to start talking. She nodded once and then gathered Alexandra in her arms. “Come on, Althea.”
Althea followed her mother, but cast an angry and scared glare back at her father before she disappeared up the stairs. Voldemort sighed. Clearly, it would not be as easy for Althea to get over that he was Voldemort as it had seemed to be for Alexandra.
He went back to the repaired working bench and removed one stray strand of hair from the jar Hermione had stocked earlier. He dropped it into the bottle of Polyjuice Potion. It was an excellent brew, and thus, the disguise would last twelve hours. Since it could be stored for up to five years, they always had a batch ready in case of emergencies. He would be good for about a month. If he hadn’t fixed his looks permanently until then, he would have to buy more.
Or steal more.
He took one sip of the disgusting potion and closed his eyes, ignoring the pain until it had finished his transfiguration. Salazar, this would be a pain to do every morning. He needed to find a way to fix his looks soon.
There was suddenly a distinct noise coming from upstairs, indicating others had arrived. Voldemort quickly hid the bottle of potion inside his robe and moved a hand over his face, making sure it was back to normal. Nose, check. Hair, check. Couldn’t be too bad, then.
He quickly went and sat next to Mizuro’s lifeless body, taking his hand and forcing tears to well in his eyes. Merlin, crying was annoying. Why did people ever bother doing it when they didn’t have to?
Footsteps came down the staircase, and in the next moment, Voldemort saw the same pair of Aurors that had been there just a few hours earlier, Mrs Brennan and her colleague.
“You,” Voldemort growled. “What did you do to our wards? We were attacked! The wards didn’t stop them! What did you do to them?”
“Just calm down, Professor Foster, and tell us what happened,” Mrs Brennan said and came over to him, kneeling next to Mizuro’s body. She did a diagnostic spell, but it only told her Mizuro was beyond any resurrection attempt. “Call for backup, Anders.”
The colleague nodded and then disappeared up the stairs.
“They just came out of nowhere,” Voldemort said, acting both angry and sad. “They had Althea and they said they’d give her back in exchange for Ken. We didn’t know what to do … the wards were supposed to have disarmed them, but they didn’t! And Ken …” Voldemort broke down in fake sobs.
Mrs Brennan placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just tell me what happened, Marcus. We will get whoever did this. What did they do, and how many were there?”
Voldemort took a deep breath. Time to lie his arse off. Hermione would know to keep quiet until he had told her what their story was. “There were five. Ken spoke some Japanese dialect with them … I couldn’t really follow. I only heard that they were from the Order of … either White Tiger or Sitting Tiger or … something with Tiger. Ken said they were old enemies of his. They were wizards, but they fought with knives and swords. They said they’d give us back Althea if Ken did … something. I don’t know what exactly. But Ken loves … loved Althea, he would never let anything or anyone hurt her. And he is—was—like a brother to me. He wouldn’t let them leave with Althea again. He attacked the person who had Althea and managed to get her away from him. Then the fighting began. All Hermione and I cared about was protecting our daughters. So we had our focus on them. I didn’t see what happened, but … suddenly they all just Disapparated again. When I turned around, Ken was lying there, dead!”
By the time he managed to finish his story through the sobbing, more Aurors had arrived.
“I don’t understand what happened to the wards,” Voldemort said in a low voice and pretended like he finally got the tears under control.
“We will take care of this,” Mrs Brennan said and patted his shoulder before rising again.
Orders were delivered, but Voldemort pretended like he was deep in his own thoughts and not listening. After a few minutes, he rose.
“I have to be with Hermione,” he said to no one in particular and then walked upstairs. When he reached the second floor, he found more Aurors with Hermione and the children inside Alexandra’s bedroom.
Alexandra had been put in bed and was sleeping while Hermione sat at the end of the bed with Althea’s head in her lap. She stroked her daughter’s hair slowly, comforting her. Althea appeared to have been crying.
“Mr Foster,” one of the Aurors greeted him.
Voldemort just nodded and went up to Hermione. He kneeled next to the bed and grabbed Hermione’s other hand, kissing it.
“Are the girls okay?” he asked in a low voice. Althea’s eyes were closed. Hermione had followed his orders. Good.
Hermione just nodded.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and then, added in his mind: Have they asked you what happened yet?
Hermione shook her head, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks again. Her hand was trembling. They tried. I didn’t know what our story was, so I just said I had to calm down a little. What’s our story?
Good kitten, Voldemort praised her as he rose to be able to hug her tightly. To the Aurors, it would look as if he was comforting his distressed wife. In reality, he showed her exactly what she was supposed to say to the Aurors when they questioned her. It seemed as if they were going to be able to dance their way out of this legal mess as well.
As long as they didn’t lock him up again, disabling him to take his Polyjuice Potion every twelve hours, that was.

xxx

It was already past noon when the last Aurors left. Hermione could hardly see straight, she was so tired. The adrenaline had long since left her body, and all she wanted was to go to bed and sleep for the next week or so. But there seemed to be a million things to do right away. The Aurors had questioned them once their attorney, Tasmin, showed up. Hermione was glad she was there. It was hard keeping track of all the lies they told, but Tasmin had apparently been briefed by Voldemort and made sure Hermione said the right things.
Hermione had been worried that Althea would give Voldemort away; she hadn’t been happy to find out who her father really was. But Althea slept like an angel after Hermione had administered the spell, and Tasmin had stopped the Auror who had insisted upon questioning Althea right away, stating that the girl needed psychological assistance first, not being questioned. Still, Hermione knew they couldn’t avoid the authorities forever. They would have to have a proper talk with Althea sooner, rather than later, about everything. They didn’t know what the fairies had told her or done to her. For all Hermione knew, they might have scarred her for life.
“How long until this blows over?” Voldemort asked Tamsin.
They had taken refuge into the library. The armchair Hermione was sitting on was so cosy she just wanted to fall asleep in it.
To their great delight, the library was mostly intact. Only the windows had been broken. The same could be said for the girls’ bedrooms. The bottom floor had not been so lucky. Hermione had no idea what the fairies had done, but everything seemed to have been wrecked. On top of that, their bedroom was still a mess after Potter’s attack.
“You’ll be lucky if you get to celebrate Christmas in peace,” Tamsin answered, her face serious. “This will be a nightmare to get through. The Potter incident was bad enough, but a famous wizard dying in your basement and your daughter appearing again, when there have been no demands? Right now, it seems logical, but once they start investigating … there are a lot of loose ends, Marcus.”
Voldemort was sitting in the armchair next to Hermione’s, rubbing his temple. “I’ll take care of it, Alice. People can be convinced; evidence can appear … I just need to sleep on it.”
“Don’t make it too neat,” Tamsin warned. “With Potter’s accusations, you don’t want anyone thinking it’s too perfect. Some people still want to believe Potter.”
“I know,” Voldemort growled, his hand falling down on the arm rest. “I will take care of it. In the meantime, you will have to make sure no one questions Althea.”
“That will be hard. I’ll find a good, discrete psychologist who can tell the Aurors that Althea needs time with her family, getting over the trauma, before she can talk about it. But she was supposedly kidnapped by the people who killed Mizuro. If the British Aurors don’t question her, the Japanese ones will insist upon it, and you can’t hinder the investigation to that degree. Mizuro had powerful friends. They will want to know what happened to him.”
“Why was he even killed?” Hermione asked. It didn’t make sense to her. Mizuro had been Voldemort’s minion, and they had actually seemed to like each other.
To her great surprise, Voldemort sent her an angry glare. “You have made enough of a mess already, Hermione. Just shut up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hermione asked, aggravated and confused over his harshness.
He still glared at her. “We will talk about it later.”
“Marc—”
“Later!” he spat.
Hermione growled at him, but she didn’t push it. She was too tired. Instead, she sank back in the armchair again and listened as Voldemort and Tasmin wrapped up their business.
“I’ll start pulling some strings, but that’s all I can do until I know where the investigation leads to,” Tasmin said, gathering her things and getting up.
“Good. Do you think we can lock Potter away for a few years as well?”
Hermione sighed quietly. Even though Harry had cost them a great deal of worry, she just couldn’t hate him as much now that they had their daughter back. She still didn’t want to see him, and their friendship was forever ruined, but did they really have to lock him up? She wasn’t thinking about Harry as much as she was thinking about Ginny and their children. Why should they have to pay for their father’s mistakes?
“I don’t think he will be imprisoned,” Tasmin said, closing her briefcase. “Last I heard, they were going to send him off to the Healers for a mental evaluation. Mr Weasley has been released from custody, but I doubt he will disturb you. He said he didn’t believe Potter but just followed him to make sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid. I could prosecute him, but I doubt he’ll get more than a fine.”
Voldemort grimaced. “Let’s not worry about that for now. It will seem strange if we cared about such a silly thing in light of Mizuro’s death.”
Tasmin nodded. “If that’s all, I’ll get to work. I’ll come by tomorrow with an update.”
“Yes, thank you, Alice.”
With a nod, she Apparated away. Voldemort sank down in the armchair again.
“Why are you angry with me?” Hermione asked tiredly.
“If you hadn’t spoken out loud about our bond, I wouldn’t have had to kill Mizuro,” Voldemort stated.
Hermione’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s why you killed him? But he was your friend! You’ve made him babysit the girls plenty of times. Did you really think he could be a threat?”
“I knew he could have been a threat,” Voldemort spat and rose. “Mizuro was a talented Dark Wizard. He followed me because he knew that I’m the most powerful wizard alive. But I always knew that if he believed he had found a weakness in me, he’d exploit it once the opportunity came. I was merely striking first.”
Hermione stared at him in disbelief. She’d liked Ken, and he had appeared to like her. Could he have killed her, just to get power over Voldemort?
She suddenly snorted out loud. How could she have been married to Voldemort for seven years and still be so naïve? Of course Voldemort’s best man would have taken the opportunity to kill him. She had tried to kill him.
“Why were you even friends with him, then?” she asked. “Weren’t you afraid he’d hurt us to get to you?”
“Not when he didn’t know why I’m with you,” Voldemort replied and transfigured the coffee table into a bed. “Now I think we need some sleep, come here.”
Hermione didn’t mind crawling into bed next to him. “And why are you with us?”
“You know why, Hermione,” Voldemort answered and pulled her into his arms, banishing their clothes.
Hermione groaned. “Please don’t tell me we are going to fuck.”
Voldemort chuckled tiredly. “Salazar, no. That was just habit.”
“Good,” Hermione said, yawning and closing her eyes. A moment later, she fell into a blissful sleep.

xxx

Althea wasn’t sure where she was when she woke up. It took her a moment to recognise the room as her own room, but when she did, everything came back to her. Her father was Voldemort, Mizuro dead in the corner ...
She began to cry.
Just seconds later, the door opened and her parents came in. But her father didn’t look scary anymore. He looked just as normal as he had done before, and yet … Morgana had told her it was a lie. She had even showed Althea through that crystal bowl how Voldemort had changed into Marcus! She let out a whimper.
“Althea, it’s okay; you are home now,” Hermione said and sat down on the bed, hugging her. “You are safe.”
“No,” Althea moaned, staring at her father. “He is Voldemort! He is evil!”
Her father sighed and sat down on the bed. “I would never hurt you, Althea.”
“You are evil; the fairies told me!” Althea insisted, trying to get away from him and closer to her mother.
“Your father isn’t evil anymore, Althea,” Hermione said softly, stroking her hair. “The fairies were the evil ones. They kidnapped you. We weren’t allowed to see you ever again, and they just wanted to use your magic so they could become corporeal again.”
“But we defeated them and got you back,” Voldemort said, reaching out to touch her.
“No!” Althea screamed and hit his hand away. “I don’t want to see you. You are evil!”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “Althea, I’m still your father—”
Althea started to scream again in anger. She didn’t want him there. She wanted the fairies to come back, and she didn’t want to have an evil wizard as her father.
“Please stop, Althea,” Hermione said, her voice carrying over Althea’s screaming. “Marcus, maybe it’s better if you—”
“She is my daughter, and she will—”
“Marcus,” Hermione interrupted him. “Go and check on Alexandra instead.”
Althea stopped screaming, becoming worried. “What’s wrong with Alex?”
“Your sister saved your life from the fairies,” Voldemort said, his voice hard. “With her magic, we managed to cleanse your system from all fairy magic. If your sister hadn’t let us use her magic, you would have died because of the fairies. Now your sister is very weak, and she’ll need to rest to regain her strength. So no more screaming.”
He marched out of the room and closed the door hard behind him.
Althea was pale. Did her father tell the truth? She looked at her mother for confirmation.
Hermione sighed. “Alex will be fine, Althea. She brought you back from the fairies to us, and then, the fairies came. When they realised we wouldn’t give you back, they started to drain your magic from you, so they could do magic in the real world. They attacked us with that magic. We had to sever the link between you and them, and the only way to do it was to flush your system, using your sister’s magic. But Alex was happy to help you, and she will get better if she just gets some rest. Your father is treating her, and will continue to do so until she is completely healed.”
Althea felt her stomach twist in guilt. She didn’t want Alex to be sick. Especially not because of her!
“What happened at the fairies, Althea? Did they hurt you before yesterday?” Hermione asked, sounding worried.
Althea shook her head. “The fairies were nice to me! They taught me magic. I’m sure they didn’t want to kill anybody. If you talk to them, you’d see.”
“I know it’s hard to hear bad things about your friends, Althea, but the fairies attacked us. We had to protect ourselves. We sent the fairies away to another dimension. There is no way to talk to them anymore. You won’t be seeing them again,” Hermione said.
Althea stared at her mother in horror. “But they are my friends!”
“They weren’t good friends, honey. No good friend would take you away from your family.”
Althea began to cry again.
“I know it hurts, Althea, but—”
“Leave me alone!” Althea cried.
“I think it’s better if we talked this—”
“Leave me alone!” Althea cried louder.
Hermione sighed. “Okay. I’ll leave you alone for a little bit. I’ll go down and get you some tea, and then, we will talk some more.”
She stroked Althea’s hair one last time before leaving the room, closing the door softly behind her.
The moment she was out, Althea wiped her tears away and closed her eyes. The fairies couldn’t be gone. The first thing Morgana had taught her was how to summon them, in case they ever got separated. Morgana had promised to come at once if Althea ever used that spell. Once Morgana came here, her mother would see that Morgana and the fairies were nice!
The spell was simple. Althea just had to take the magic inside her into her hand and think Morgana’s name. She did it and opened her eyes. For almost a minute, she just sat there and waited for Morgana to arrive. Nothing happened.
She closed her eyes again, and this time, she called Morgana’s name out loud. But her room remained empty.
Althea felt a stab of betrayal in her heart. Morgana had promised to always be there, but now, when Althea needed her the most, she was nowhere to be found.
Althea began crying again.

xxx

Nothing made sense, and it made Althea angry. She hated not knowing anything.
It had been almost a day since she was taken from the fairies, and they still hadn’t come for her. Instead, the only one who did come for her was a Mental Healer.
They were all sitting inside the library, Althea, the Mental Healer, and her parents. Althea didn’t like the Mental Healer. Mrs Cameron treated her like she was a child who needed mollycoddling, and there was just one thing Althea really wanted to say.
“Dad’s evil. He kills people.”
Mrs Cameron didn’t react as Althea had hoped. Instead, she just good a look of sympathy on her face before turning to Voldemort.
“Perhaps this will be easier if I talk to Althea alone?” she said softly.
“Very well. Call if you need us,” Voldemort said, to Althea’s great surprise. He just rose and left together with her mother.
When the door closed, Mrs Cameron turned back to Althea. “Althea, you can tell me anything you want. Although I have to speak to your parents and the Aurors about some of what you tell me, I will not tell them more than they need to know. But nothing you say here will get you in any trouble. We just have to make sure the person who did this to you is caught. So if you want, you can tell me everything.”
After a moment of hesitation, Althea decided to tell the Mental Healer everything about the fairies and how her dad had killed them. For some reason, she started coughing whenever she tried to say Voldemort’s name, but it didn’t matter. She was sure to get the whole story out.

xxx

Voldemort sat down opposite from the Mental Healer while Hermione sat down on the side.
“Your daughter has suppressed her memories of the kidnapping,” Mrs Cameron began with a serious face. “She has made up a fantasy around it instead, about being taken by fairies. It’s her way of dealing with the memories. Has she experienced any nightmares?”
“Not this night, at least,” Hermione responded, sounding uncertain.
“That’s good sign. It’s also good that she managed to talk so easily to me about it. I think she’ll be able to process her traumatic memories with therapy; however, this will take time, and for the benefit of her psychiatric health, it has to take time. I strongly object to any interrogation by the Aurors. They won’t have any use of her information in any case. If she ever lets herself remember what really happens, the memories will no doubt be rather fuzzy, and not something to rely on in court.”
Voldemort managed to suppress a smirk. That was one problem out of the way, at least, and it had been easier than he thought. Mrs Cameron had reached the conclusion Voldemort wanted her to reach all on her own, without having to use Legilimency. With Althea away from the investigation, things would be much easier.
“What I find to be the most pressing issue is her resentment of you, Professor Foster,” Mrs Cameron continued, turning to him. “You have become the evil entity in her fantasy. You will have to prove her wrong and make her regain her trust in you.”
Voldemort wanted to roll his eyes. All Althea needed was to get over that he was Voldemort. However, he couldn’t say that. “Yes, of course. I can’t blame her for it … What kind of father am I for letting my daughter be kidnapped?”
He looked away, putting on his best ashamed face.
Hermione didn’t say a word, which surprised him. He glanced at her. Her mouth was pressed together in a thin line, and she looked as if she wanted to use her eyes to burn a hole into the kitchen table. She was angry at him. He mentally sighed.
“I realise this is all a lot of you to process. I’ll come by tomorrow and talk some more with you as well as Althea. I’m sure you’ll have thought about some questions then. I’ll speak to the Aurors,” Mrs Cameron said, rising.
“We appreciate that,” Voldemort said softly.
“Let me show you to the door,” Hermione said quickly and got up from her seat. Clearly, she didn’t feel like talking more to him. No doubt was she expecting a fight to break out.
He sighed and massaged his temple. Very well. He didn’t have time with this either way. He needed to get to Japan and frame some mobsters.

xxx

Later that night, Hermione found Althea sitting in the library. At least the world of the books was still making sense, so Althea kept to them.
“Hi, Althea, what are you reading?” Hermione said, sitting down on the floor next to her daughter.
Althea showed her the cover. It was a book about charms.
“Haven’t you read it before?” Hermione asked.
“So?” Althea asked, not looking at her mother.
Hermione sighed. “We need to talk, Althea.”
Althea hated when her mother used that tone, but she knew it wouldn’t help to run away. If she did, then Hermione could bring her father in, and Althea didn’t want to see him.
Reluctantly, she put the book down, crossing her arms. Hermione frowned, clearly not pleased with her daughter’s attitude, but she didn’t comment on it.
“I know you have questions about your father,” Hermione began slowly. “It will be much easier if you just ask them. I won’t be angry, you have the right to know.”
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner, then?” Althea asked sourly.
Hermione grimaced. “We hadn’t planned to tell you at all. Marcus was Voldemort, but he has left all of that behind him. When he got his new body and met me, he stopped being the Dark Lord.”
Althea sat in silence for a moment, taking it in. “But he’s Voldemort! He killed people. You told me that. And you can’t just brush that away. You go to prison when you have killed someone. Harry showed me.”
“Yes, you are right,” Hermione said with a sigh. “When you have done what Voldemort did, you deserve to go to prison. But you don’t always get what you deserve in life. Life isn’t like the fairy tales when you—”
“I know that,” Althea cut in, annoyed. She wasn’t some little kid. “But he killed a lot of people. He should pay.”
“Yes, he should,” Hermione agreed. “But until that happens, I’m making sure he doesn’t kill anyone else.”
Althea looked up at her, surprised. “How can you do that?”
“I’m his wife, he has to listen to me,” Hermione said, giving her a wink.
Althea arched her eyebrows in disbelief. It made Hermione smile.
“I understand that this is a shock for you, Althea, but he is still your father, and he is no different from before you were taken by the fairies. You don’t have to be afraid of him.”
“I’m not afraid of him!” Althea exclaimed. “But he’s evil! Why did you marry him?”
Hermione hesitated for a moment. “Because I love him,” she finally said with a firm voice. “And you can’t help who you fall in love with.”
“But he is evil!” Althea exclaimed again.
“People aren’t divided into good and evil,” Hermione said softly. “They are more complex than that. You know, like a knife can be used both for cooking and for killing someone. Your father is like that. I just make sure he cooks instead of kills.”
Althea crossed her arms again and stared down at the floor. She didn’t want to take in what her mother was saying, she was still too angry at her parents for lying and taking away her friends.
Hermione sighed. “Come on, Althea, it’s time for dinner.”
“I’m not hungry,” Althea spat.
“Eat anyway,” Hermione said, her voice getting a hard edge.
Althea grimaced but rose as her mother got up. There was no use arguing when her mother used that voice. Sighing, she followed, dragging her feet behind her.
When she came down, Alexandra was already sitting there, her knees tucked up against her chest. She was still in her nightgown, despite it being five o’clock in the afternoon. Althea felt a sting of guilt. The only reason her sister was feeling so ill and so tired was because she had helped heal Althea. At least that’s what her mother had told her.
“Will Dad be home for dinner today?” Alexandra asked. She even sounded tired. She was very pale as well, but at least she had managed to make it to the kitchen today. Yesterday, she had been asleep for most of the day.
“I don’t know, honey,” Hermione said, waving her wand to set the table. “He had some things to take care off. He may not be back until tomorrow.”
“Good,” Althea muttered under her breath.
Her mother heard her and sent her a displeased look as she organised the packages of Chinese food. With another wave of her wand, the food was warm.
“Do you think you can eat a little more now, Alexandra?” Hermione asked, serving her youngest daughter.
“Yeah, I’m hungry,” Alexandra said.
Hermione smiled. “Good. You’ll be up and running in no time. Hopefully, you’ll be back in school at the beginning of next week.”
The comment made Althea think of something. “Mum, am I going to Hogwarts?”
Hermione hesitated, pouring food onto her plate. “We haven’t talked about it yet. And I don’t know the school’s policy for accepting students late into the semester. We’ll probably have to talk with the Headmistress. Do you want to go there now?”
Althea shrugged. “Where else would I go to school?”
“You could be home-schooled,” Hermione said, but something had her looking very thoughtful.
Althea didn’t know what she would rather do. In one way, she’d love to get away from all this and go to Hogwarts and learn magic. But on the other hand, people would ask questions about where she had been, and she didn’t feel like talking about it. It was just so hard to talk about. The fairies had been nice to her and taught her so much about magic, but not the same type of magic as she had read about before. It was more … natural. She could feel her magic, and the magic around her. She could do magical things without a wand. The fairies had told her that there was nothing she couldn’t do if she just wanted it enough.
The problem was that she didn’t know what she wanted anymore. She felt lost.
The pop of someone Apparating came from the foyer. A moment later, Althea’s father appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Oh, good, you managed to restore the kitchen,” he said as he walked into the kitchen. He didn’t look as scary as he had done two days ago, but there was still something that wasn’t quite right in his look. Althea couldn’t put her finger on it, but it just felt … fake.
“Temporarily, at least,” Hermione answered. “I may as well have used glue to get it back together. We will probably have to redo the kitchen once we got some time to spare. Whatever magic they used, it was strong.”
He sighed and sat down. “Let’s just hire someone to do it. That’s what money is for, after all.” He transfigured a new plate for himself and started to dish up his food. “Nice to see you up and about, Alex. How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” Alexandra answered, slowly chewing her food.
“She is stronger than yesterday at least,” Hermione added. “She has been awake for a couple of hours now.”
“Good. I’ll use stronger magic to heal you tonight. You’ll be as good as new in a matter of days. How about you, Althea? Still not talking to me?”
Althea pretended to be too busy scooping food into her mouth to answer. But she could see her parents exchange a few looks. Her father was looking as if he was asking for permission for something, which her mother answered with a headshake.
“Fine,” he sighed. “Later.”
Hermione nodded. “How did it go this afternoon?”
“Excellent. The Japanese Aurors seem convinced that it was some of Ken’s enemies that killed him. They were bringing in suspects just after I left,” he seemed very pleased about this.
“That’s something at least. Do you think they will be convicted?” Hermione asked.
“Yes, they will probably gather more evidence tomorrow, and I’m sure they’ll find enough to get them locked up for a very long time.”
Althea very much wanted to ask why Ken had died. Voldemort had told her the fairies had killed Ken, but now he was talking about some other enemies. Why was that? Nothing made sense anymore. However,she didn’t want to speak to her father, so she remained quiet even though she wondered and mourned about Ken. She still couldn’t believe he was gone. Ken had always been there, like an uncle, even though she didn’t get to see him that often.
“How has your research been going?” he asked next.
“Our daughters take priority, dear. And it was a pain to just make this house liveable again. We will have to do the research when everything has calmed down,” Hermione replied, her voice cool.
“Fine,” he muttered.
Althea stared down at her plate as she ate and listened to her parents chat in codes. She knew it was in codes, because even though she understood the words, she didn’t know what they were really talking about. When they were just talking about work, then Althea didn’t understand, but that was because they were using too many difficult words. Now the words were simple, but the meaning unclear. It annoyed her.
“Mum, can I go back to bed?” Alexandra asked after a while.
“Do you need any help?” Hermione asked, putting her fork down on her half-empty plate.
“I can help her,” Althea volunteered and jumped off her seat. If her parents were going to speak in riddles all night, she didn’t want to just sit there.
“I don’t need help,” Alexandra muttered, but she didn’t object when Althea took a hold of her hand and helped her up.
“Okay, call if you need anything,” Hermione told the girls.
“Mm,” Althea said and led Alexandra out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
The sisters were silent until they reached Alexandra’s bedroom. Althea helped her get into bed and then sat down at the end of it, pulling her knees up to her chest. Alexandra stared at her for a moment.
“Are you sad I brought you home?” Alexandra finally asked.
Althea shrugged. She still hadn’t made up her mind on that one.
“Is it because of Dad?”
“Aren’t you angry at him? He’s a killer,” Althea said fiercely.
“So?”
“Killing is evil.”
“Dad isn’t evil.”
“Is too!”
Alexandra crossed her arms. “Is not.”
Althea crossed her arms over her knees. “You’ve heard the stories about Voldydorks. He killed Harry’s parents. He is evil.”
“Harry is evil,” Alexandra spat. “He tried to kill Mum and Dad.”
Althea had heard it before. “He was crazy.”
“Dad was crazy before he met Mum. Mum made him better. She told me,” Alexandra said.
“If he was really better, he would go to prison,” Althea answered. “Instead, he is hiding.”
“Mum makes him better!” Alexandra objected. “If he goes to prison, Mum won’t be there for him, and he will go bad again.”
“Mum shouldn’t have to!” Althea growled. “Mum would be better off without him.”
“How can you say that? It’s Dad!” Alexandra exclaimed sitting up quickly.
But she shouldn’t have done that. At once, Alexandra turned very pale and she fell down to her side.
“MUM!” Althea screamed, scared.
Her parents were in the room so fast, they must have Apparated.
“We were just talking,” Althea cried, worried she had done anything to cause her sister’s distress, but denying it for herself.
“Hush, it’s okay.” She was embraced by her father, and she clung tightly to him, sobbing.
“She’s okay,” Hermione said just a moment later. “She just overexerted herself. She’s asleep.”
“We were just talking,” Althea cried again, her words muffled by the fabric of her father’s shirt.
“We know, dear,” her father said, stroking her hair. “Alexandra is just weak right now. She will be better soon.”
Althea continued to sob for a moment, until she realised whom she was sobbing against. She froze. Her father must have felt it, because he sighed and withdrew.
“Althea, this is getting ridiculous,” he said, failing to suppress his annoyance.
“Talk about this in the other room,” Hermione cut in and ushered them outside.
Confident that her mother was taking care of her sister, Althea made an attempt to sneak into her own room and lock the door, but her father followed as if there were no obstacle at all and closed the door behind him.
“Althea,” he groaned.
“Stay away from me, Voldydorks,” Althea spat, turning her back towards him.
“Someone should be flogged for making up that name,” he muttered and gripped her shoulder, spinning her back around. “It’s Voldemort, Althea. Vol-duh-more.”
Althea glared at him. “Voldydorks.”
“If you call me that again, there will be no ice-cream or books for a month. Am I understood?” he said in his most serious voice.
Althea pressed her lips together. She understood. Her father took his threats very seriously.
“Excellent.” He let go of her and sat down on her bed, leaning back against the wall. “I know it must have come as a shock for you to find out who I am. But we can’t help who our parents are, Althea. You’ll have to come to terms with it, one way or another. So why don’t you tell me what is really bothering you right here and now, and we’ll deal with it.”
Althea glared at him. “You are a killer.”
“True, but I know you, Althea. You know killing is bad, but just like your sister, you have been too protected to know what that really means. You didn’t know any of the people I killed, so even though you know you should be angry at me for doing it, you aren’t really. You are just using that as an excuse for the real reason why you are angry with me.”
“You killed Morgana!”
He studied her for a moment. “Morgana was going to kill us, Althea. She was just using you.”
There it was again, that cold hand, squeezing her heart. “Morgana was my friend, and you killed her!”
He leaned forward on the bed. “So that’s why you are upset. You’re upset because your best friend turned out to be a fraud.”
“Shut up! She wasn’t!” Althea couldn’t stop the tears from running down her cheeks.
Voldemort sighed and sank down on the floor, pulling her towards him. Althea tried to pull away, but her father was stronger than she. He transfigured a napkin and wiped her cheeks. When Althea tried to bite his hand, he withdrew.
“I know it hurts to be betrayed, child,” he said softly. “I have been betrayed more times than I care to remember. But crying and sulking isn’t the way to deal with it. You are a bright and resourceful girl, Althea. You can get new, better friends.” He leaned forward. “When you feel like talking with me again, I’ll tell you a story about another boy who didn’t have any friends. At least not until he came to Hogwarts. I think you’ll like that one.”
Before Althea could stop herself, she asked, “Who’s that boy?”
“That would be me,” he said with a soft smile before getting up. He ruffled her hair on his way out and left Althea feeling sad and miserable, yet slightly curious as well.
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