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Harry Potter and the Slytherin Heirs	By : SilverAngel621 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 9448 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I make nothing from this fic.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Chapter 8
At the lowest level of the ministry where no light traveled and no outside air permeated, there was a large white room. White tiles spread over the floor and crawled up the walls to even cover the ceiling. A blueish white light from between the gaps left by the tiles on the ceiling lighted the room. There were no labels to let a visitor know what the room was for. Not many had access to the secret ground level. They didn't need to. Usually it stayed empty.
Usually.
But not tonight. Stoic faced death eaters formed a perimeter along the wall. Some of them shuffled nervously, eyeing the trio in the middle of the room. At some distance, a seated woman took meticulous notes of the interrogation. Dressed in a billowy white shirt and sapphire blue pencil skirt, Pansy Parkinson was the only one in the rooms who looked relaxed. Or as relaxed as a person could get with a woman strung up by her arms in the middle of the room getting tortured. By her side, a small table with small vials of different colored potions stood at the ready. A glimmering translucent shield protected her and the table from the occasional blood splatter.
Hadrian looked at the woman in front him with barely leased disgust. This piece of filth had dared to insult his mother, his brother. To come into their own home and attack one of them was her fatal mistake. It was worse than treason in his eyes. At least that offense attacked an entire government, an institution. But this woman had attacked his mother and an innocent child. And they had been attacked for something entirely negligible.
He had thought squibs would be less of a taboo now under his father's rule. He didn't remember the event but Salazar had been a teen when Tom passed the law that gave back basic rights to squibs. He hadn't really given much thought to what censure Orion might face due to being a squib. To him, Orion was just a child, still nursing from his mother and crying at odd hours and gurgling up at him when he made tricks with his wand. Orion was just his brother. But already he was being judged on something he had no control over.
Casting one his newest spells, Hadrian watched in sadistic satisfaction as a metallic fluid slithered out from the tip of his wand. It curled around Umbridge’s immobile body before with one flick of his wand, the sharp metal tip thrust inside her body through her gut. The woman screamed out as the metal fluid continued to fill her until he broke the metal connection to his wand.
“Do you wish to speak now?” Salazar drawled.
When they'd first brought the woman here, Hadrian had almost killed her in his overzealous quest for revenge. His magic had been strangling her without him having to even use his wand. But it would have been a quick and merciful death. Thankfully, Salazar cast a quick healing spell. Their father interrogated her while Hadrian was allowed to play. Often, he'd had to be pulled back.
Then Theo had interrupted him, pointedly ignoring him and informed their father that their mother had called inquiring about them. After that, their father had quickly lost patience and it fell on Salazar to put a check on both of them when both of them grew impatient with Umbridge’s evasions. Their father finally left when Salazar suggested they could conduct the interrogation until Tom came back.
So, Salazar did the questioning while Hadrian doled out the promised threats. He preferred it that way. He didn’t think he could think clearly enough to pay attention to the woman's words when they were so aggravating. It wasn't that she refused to talk. No, she alternately praised him for his mastery of dark spells while wondering how a half blood disgrace like Harry Potter had given birth to him. At her latest derogatory comment on his mother, Hadrian had lost the last restraint on his tenuous control and clawed into her mouth with bare hands and ripped it off.
Salazar had merely tutted before levitating the mutilated flesh and haphazardly reattaching it back to her ravaged face. They'd had to wait a bit to continue as she'd passed out.
Umbridge’s lips trembled open then went slack as the weakened muscles gave out. She continued to move her jaw but her lips flapped uselessly.
Pansy tutted and picked out a pale pink potion from the options and levitated it to Salazar. “Really, Salazar, you should study up in your healing spells. They are disgraceful.”
The man merely grunted before snatched the floating potion out of the air. He strode to their captive and grabbed her jaw before tipping her head back and pouring the potion down her throat.
“Muscle strengthener?” Hadrian questioned curiously.
With an exasperated sigh, Pansy scribbled something else on a separate parchment. “Not you too. It’s a basic potion taught in rudimentary master’s level class. Muscle and nerve regeneration potion. It will take about half an hour to work. Perhaps next time you'll think before you go tearing someone’s face off.”
Both Riddle brothers frowned at her, although for different reasons. “It was not the entire face, it was merely her mouth. Your entire job is to keep records and you cannot even get simple facts correct.” Salazar sneered, only to be met with Pansy slight sniff.
“And your entire job is to get the address of the society she works for. And my excellent records show that you have not done that in the hours we've been here.” She retorted with a small smirk.
Salazar growled but said nothing. He walked back to Hadrian and crossed his arms over his chest. “Insufferable witch,” he muttered underneath his breath. Although it might have been “insufferable bitch,”.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hadrian saw Pansy reach for the parchment she'd written on before and make another notation. With the intention to clearly be heard, Pansy said “Salazar: grew frustrated at valid critique, devolved to name calling like a child.”
Hadrian snorted in amusement. It was no wonder his brother and the Parkinson heir were dating. Both had the vinegary personality to match.
A vein pulsed dangerously by Salazar’s jaw as he clenched his teeth. “Writing my biography?”
Pansy quirked a perfectly groomed brow and brushed the tip of her quill against her pursed lips. “No, just a separate report of you and Hadrian for Lord Voldemort to read.”
Salazar snapped his jaw shut and looked blindly at Umbridge. The man was probably imagining Pansy in the woman's place. Hadrian snickered.
“Do you find something funny brother?”
“Yeah, you. You guys are hilarious. You should bring her home to meet mom.” Hadrian said the last part in parseltongue, not wanting to out his brothers dating life to the other death eaters in the room. Their father already knew the two were dating, he always knew everything. But their mother didn't and Hadrian wasn't going to be a snitch. Tom used his powerful legilimency skills to completely shatter his children's privacy but Harry had other ways. He bribed the death eaters to keep him appraised over his children. Although he only did that for Salazar and James. Hadrian readily told his mother everything, wanting him to know. His mother was the best listener.
Pansy spoke up in the middle of their conversation. “Um, I have that recorded phonetically so your father will still know what you've said.”
Another vein at Salazar’s temple jumped as he addressed Hadrian. “Mind your own business and pay attention to the job.”
Hadrian grinned cheekily. “She's out for twenty-five more minutes. I'm bored and you're fun to tease. You get so pissy.”
“I do not get pissy.”
“Ahem, Salazar, I'll have to agree with your brother, you do indeed get pissy. Oh look, you even look pissy now. And you're about to say something pissy in about three…two…”
Hadrian erected a hasty one way silencing spell to cut off Pansy’s words. Was she trying provoke his brother into attacking her? They were in a torture room, for fucks sake.
“Remind me why you date her?” The foolish woman was smiling now, and scribbling god knows what in on the report meant for Tom while an automated one transcribed everything that they were saying.
Inhaling through his nose, Salazar slowly let the air from his lungs escape through his mouth. “The reason escapes me at this moment.”
They waited patiently for the woman to regain consciousness and use of her lips again. So far, when their father had been here they'd gotten many of the member names for W.A.N.D.S. But aside from the leaders of the group, the rest of the names she listed turned out to be fakes. Death eaters had been dispatched to capture and detain the men and women Pansy had validated as real names. They'd gotten all the rules and regulations as well as the drivel they believed in voluntarily as the delusional woman had tried to actually convert them to her way of thinking. While she was being tortured. Hadrian would have worried Tom's constant attacks into her mind had addled what little wit she had left but she'd started long before Tom had delved into her mind.
A wizard had to know what he was looking for when using legilimency or it would take years to wade through all the memories. The initial step had been to gather some names, even partial ones before Tom had been able to delve into her mind with those specifics in mind. The names connected to other names and faces and that's how he had been able to get a list of names, even if the many of them had been aliases. And he'd only got potential glimpse of a few faces., Hadrian had been told when he'd asked. Many wore masks at gatherings so Umbridge’s memories hadn’t helped on that avenue. Now getting addresses for places they met at to where their headquarters were was harder since they were more scattered and there were no obvious connections. Without specifics Tom had not been able to hunt inside her mind. So, they'd resorted to good old torture.
Hadrian had foolishly suggested using veritaserum after the fourth time he'd almost killed her and they'd had to wait for her to regain consciousness. It had not been fun to receive a small stinging hex from his father then a condescending lecture on why he was being stupid. Tom had seen a stray memory where Umbridge had taken an anecdote to veritaserum, a common practice among many wizards now. It only confirmed what he had suspected. Many, if not all the guests had taken the antidote before coming to the ball, they would have been stupid not to. It would be so easy to slip the potion into a drink while no one was looking. So of course, Umbridge would have taken a precaution like that.
The antidote usually lasted for twenty-four hours before fading away but time was of the essence. Once her cohorts learned she had offended Tom and his family, they'd of course scramble to hide everything and go underground. So, they had to act fast.
Now, they were waiting on the specifies meeting places. She'd already given up places. Some were private homes and business and others were public businesses. At this very second, death eaters were knocking on the doors of private homes and a few more were scheduled to visit the businesses to question the owners and workers.
Umbridge finally blinked open her beady eyes before they went wide when they landed on Salazar and Hadrian. “Please…mmm…Riddle…” she slurred.
“What other meeting places do you know?” Salazar asked for the umpteenth time.
“Ss-squib…wrong…realize this…” Umbridge moaned.
What little reserve he'd had was gone now. With a slashing movement of his wand, Hadrian ignited the metal he'd put inside her. She screamed as it began to heat up, boiling up her insides. The smell of burning flesh permeated the room. One death eater couldn’t help his gag reflex, but quickly composed himself when Salazar quirked an angry bow at the man.
The skin over the woman's body began to boil, blisters forming all over her exposed flesh. The fleshy bubbles popped, oozing blood and exposing new skin to the air. Hadrian walked closer and pressed his wand to one of the larger spots of newly exposed skin. Umbridge shrieked, the sound almost enough to hurt his eardrums.
“Expulso.” The metal inside her body formed small balls and shot out of her body back into Hadrian's wand. It left thousands of little holes over her stomach and thigh area. They looked like dark pock marks. Blood drippled generously out of the holes, a trypophobic’s nightmare. Hadrian stepped closer until he was in her eyesight. She weaved in and out of consciousness but he waited until she could focus on him again.
“This is going to hurt,” he smiled viciously as he stuck his wand tip inside a hole on her stomach and twisted. The flesh ripped around the girth of his wand and it became a larger hole. He pulled the wand out and shoved it into another hole until that ripped too. A stasis charm on her organs kept them inside her body. He didn't want her to die on him before he finished his game of connect the dots.
Her screams turned into frantic babbling. He made out some words so he stepped back. Her head lolled uselessly to the side as her screams died down. She stuttered out a mantra of a street address which Pansy quickly scribbled down. Salazar regenerated her skin with a potion and Hadrian repeated his metal spell again only to have it explode out of her again and again. He ripped into those holes, again and again. One time, he had the metal come out from her cheeks then used his wand to rip through the holes, carving a grotesque fake smile as he dragged the wand up in a curve through her cheeks. The skin flapped uselessly as her jaw opened wide in a soundless scream. Her skin made a gross parody of putrid, rotting Swiss cheese.
They got many more addresses to investigate before Pansy declared Umbridge needed time to rest. A healing spell could only do so much before a body needed physical rest. It was just in time however as Tom sent an owl informing them they needed to be present for breakfast. He was pleased with their progress but wanted Harry to have his entire family with him. Hadrian would have gone regardless, he'd seen how shaken his mother had been even though he'd been too busy imagining how Umbridge’s face would look smashed against the marble floor last night. But he knew his workaholic brother would have stayed to monitor Umbridge unless Tom said otherwise. And when he requested they do something, it was actually a command he expected to be followed without any protest.
So, leaving Pansy, and another healer to monitor Umbridge in the room, they flooed to Slytherin Palace.
………….
Excerpt from The Making of a Tragedy by Rita Skeeter
The first-time Harry Potter met Salazar Marvolo Riddle was when the heir apparent was six years old. Hogwarts fell to the Lord Voldemort two years prior and the Order, who had their base in a secret room at Hogwarts went underground. One of the Orders top officers and leader of many successful raids against death eaters Lord Sirius Black was killed by Peter Pettigrew in a duel. Order members were slowly dwindling down and their image had soured in the public.
Dumbledore spoke of the evils Lord Voldemort would bring, the death that would follow like a shadow. The Order was the light and the Knight of Walpurgis were the dark. But even as war raged, Lord Voldemort implemented many new laws to protect pure blood tradition and give rights to previously classified dark creatures. He brought to light the many injustices they had to face. He made us see how much culture we had lost to muggles. We had closed ourselves off to a large part of magic, seeing all dark magic as synonymous to evil magic. He reminded us that one of the greatest wizards had been a Slytherin, the great Merlin, and yet the majority of wizarding society classified all Slytherins as evil. Gryffindors were the rave ones, Ravenclaws the smart ones and Hufflepuffs the loyal ones.
I myself am a proud Ravenclaw but I am not only highly intelligent, but I am very loyal to my reader base, I am brave to risk my life when I report on dangerous events and I am as cunning as any Slytherin.
And dear readers, I will remind you I was the first reporter to bravely step forward and pledge my support of the new laws. He fixed the corruption in the ministry one day and fought off Order members the next day while raising a son all on his own. That above all is to be commended.
We, the public faced the cold reality of war. War does not know the innocent from the guilty. It spares no one and affects everyone. In efforts to capture Order members, death eaters destroyed entire villages. In raids perpetrated by the Order, entire family lines were lost. Children, women, men, the elderly, there was no discrimination from either side. And we had seen what both sides were fighting for. The light side wanted to bring back the years of past, rife with ministry corruption and no economic growth in a record century. And the dark side was fighting to keep the new ways they'd enacted, to protect the magical community from an influx of muggle influences and correct the corruption of the previous ministry. And the public made their choice, they overwhelmingly wanted to keep the new ways Lord Voldemort introduced.
But as you know, Harry fought for the Order. He had been pulled into their ranks with their ideals of protecting the muggles and fighting for the greater good. And may I remind you, those were the mantra of notorious dark wizard Gellert Grindewald. Harry fought as a dedicated soldier, and that is to be commended.
This author will remind you of my last best seller book on Albus Dumbledore and how he tricked all of us, even me, dear reader into believing he was a great and noble man. But noble men do not kill their sisters, they do not overlook abuse of their students for the greater good, they do not stand by while a child fights an adult’s war. As you know, Dumbledore was close friends with the infamous Grindelwald, the darkest wizard of his generation. One can only imagine how alike the two were.
The public soon realized why Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort never faced off in a duel. Lord Voldemort finally tracked Dumbledore down and engaged him in a duel, in which the Hogwarts Headmaster died. It proved to be the death blow to the entire Order. Their leader was gone and they had no direction.
Harry Potter, who until previously had fought against death eaters using a polyjuice potion came out of hiding. From an Order member who saw the entire confrontation, I bring to you eyewitness coverage of the duel that changed the course of history. This has never been done before, there has only been speculation over this event. But I bring to you minute by minute detail of what happened.
Harry, blinded by grief, went to confront Lord Voldemort at a time when he was giving a public speech on Dumbledore’s recent death. The public quickly scattered, not wanting to be casualties of another battle. Surprisingly, it was death eaters helping to clear the great hall of the ministry as the remaining order members came prepared for war.
Harry attacked Lord Voldemort and they engaged in an epic battle. Harry, barely past his majority fought with the skill of a seasoned and powerful duelist. Death eaters and Order members watched in awe as they fought, their spells destroying the entire ministry. It continued for hours, Harry proving why he was a worthy opponent to the dark lord. Both men exhausted from battle still persevered as death eaters and Order members battled around them among the rubble of the fallen ministry.
But it seemed a tide was turning for the Order. Harry got the upper hand and finally brought the great wizard to his knees. With a simple but powerful expeliarmus, Harry disarmed Lord Voldemort . He was just about to deliver the death blow when someone new entered the foray. A small boy of six, still with the blush of youth staining his cheeks but with the world wary eyes of a soldier who'd seen too much and not enough peace stood before Lord Voldemort with his wand drawn against Harry. Everyone was shocked. The death eaters stopped their duels with the Order to scramble to protect their little lord while the Order members stood in awe of the small boy who dared to stand in front of a wand, all to protect Lord Voldemort .
To everyone's surprise, Harry did not stop. Lost to the bloodlust of battle, he attacked the child. It took only a few spells to get past the child's weak shielding spells and even weaker offensive spells. But readers, do not think that I mean Salazar was weak at age six. He was casting spells most adults now would struggle with. But in the face of Harry Potter, a man whose power I believe rivals Lord Voldemort , the spells Salazar cast were weak. However the child was strong. Every time he fell, he would get up again to face another spell from Harry. He only fell when a dark cutting spell, the sectumsempra, now an illegal curse came his way. As you know, that spell was outlawed by Harry personally five years later. It makes one wonder if his guilt had anything to do with it. This author believes it does, given the evidence.
Cut in multiple places and bleeding, Salazar was on the verge of death. And everyone was overcome with horror. Harry Potter had attacked a child. And not just any child, his own child.
But the small battle gave Lord Voldemort the opportunity to recuperate and he caught Harry off guard. With a powerful unknown spell, he knocked Harry unconscious and ended the battle.
I shall state the obvious and say how heartbreaking that battle must have been. But I can bring a bit of heartwarming news. Lord Voldemort immediately went to his son and began to heal him. He screamed out for his right-hand man Severus Snape, who treated the young boy as best as he could. And from the Order member I interviewed, they revealed the saw a hint of tears in the dark lord’s eyes. It could have been a trick of the light or the exhaustion of battle that might have addled the Order member but this author likes to think that the dark lord was truly afraid of losing his son that day.
The death eaters took their wounded and dead as more reinforcements finally came. There had been a ward erected by the Order that prevented most death eaters from coming in to join the battle. With Harry unconscious, the spell weakened. It was a decisive battle that ended the second war after almost a century. That day, the wizarding public heaved a great sigh of relief, even the few who supported the Order. The war had gone on so long, there were children whose entire lives were spent living in fear of the war, peace a foreign concept. It was over, and many hoped peace would come.
And it did.
Death eaters took Harry's unconscious body to Malfoy manor, the dark lord’s headquarters at the time. The ministry was slowly built by the Malfoys, and public building and homes destroyed in the war were rebuilt from the ministry treasury. Society was slowly regrouping and recovering.
However, from a former employee in the Riddle manor, I am told all was not well in the household. Harry soon learned that child he attacked had been his son, a boy he'd thought dead for six years. He was, as I imagine, crippled with grief and guilt. Salazar had to be induced into a magical coma, his injuries so severe. And as society recovered, many speculated and wondered how their savior could have attacked a child so viciously. Perhaps the boy we thought would save us from the dark lord was even darker that lord Voldemort himself. Many had seen Harry fight in the war and saw how powerful he was. Many did not trust him. And Lord Voldemort had proved he was an able leader, so that I believe swayed much of the neutral public to support him .
About a month later, Salazar was reported to have made a full recovery. However, my source told me Salazar was standoffish towards Harry. He only addressed his absent parent by his full title and name, and only when Lord Voldemort forced it. Salazar saw Harry as a stranger, as an enemy. His own parent.
The Riddles - Lord Voldemort , Salazar and Harry made their first public appearance and Harry publicly pledged his allegiance to Lord Voldemort . At the appearance, the public noticed a customized slave collar on the young man. No one was outraged. It actually assured us that Harry Potter was under check. What he had showed us truly made us fear him.
I can report, however, that the collar shouldn't have reassured us at all. From the same anonymous source I consulted with before about Harry's first two years with Lord Voldemort when he was fourteen, I can tell you that Harry had the collar placed on him the moment Lord Voldemort took him from the graveyard and brought him to Malfoy Manor.
Slave collars, an antiquated practice, is a customizable restraint on the person wearing it that usually severely limits their power. But it seems lord Voldemort did not place those restraints on the collar, as Harry had managed to escape him, avoid detection for years, and fight against his death eaters to the full extent of his powers. So, readers, take heed, because although Harry Potter wears a slave collar he is just as dangerous as without.
TBC
……...

Everyone in the palace was still sleeping when the Riddle children woke at the crack of dawn. They'd been too excited from the unexpected show last night; though the party had ended early, many only went to bed at the wee hours of morning, too busy gossiping and atwitter with excitement. In preparation for their sleeping guests, Harry had an afternoon brunch set up for the guests out in the veranda. The house elves were currently putting up decorations and getting a group of centaurs ready to provide entertainment. But Tom saw how tired Harry was in the morning so he put Lucius in charge of hosting the brunch later and closed off a moderate dining room for his family for their breakfast. He'd called back Salazar and Hadrian under express instructions to not mention the Umbridge woman in Harry's presence.
He sat at the head of the table being served by the elves with Harry by his side. Salazar, Hadrian, Teddy, James and Lily sat off to his left while Alfred, the twins, and Cerise sat by Harry as he bounced an irritable Orion in his arms. Unlike the other Riddles, the youngest was not a morning person and let everyone know.
It as almost as if nothing of note had happened last night. With one warning glare, Tom discouraged the children from mentioning the Umbridge woman. Each of them filed into the room with a fierce hug for Harry before sitting down in front of their plates. Teddy and James were lost in their own world, talking animatedly about the newest broom to hit the markets. Neither Lily nor Alfred engaged in small talk, quietly stabbing at their food with their forks and taking small sips of their pumpkin juice. Tom didn't feel like he should have to coddle them; they should get over what they had seen. He knew they'd seen worst on those muggle movies they’d sneaked off to see in London.
Everyone's attention jerked to Lily when she shrieked and jumped into her seat in an undignified squat. The twins couldn’t help their snickers. At Harry's glare, they pouted.
“What? It's just a joke,” Reggie whined.
Rom nodded in agreement. “She was being all jumpy and fell from the bed this morning when Nagini came to wake us up.”
As one, all except Lily and Harry, the Riddles looked down to see Nagini coiled by the twins legs. A few bits of food lay by their feet.
“Rom, Reggie, you are not leaving your seats until you have at least six florets of broccoli.” Harry lifted his wand and before the twins could scramble up, green vines wrapped around their legs and waist. Twin cries of “mommy” sounded but Harry ignored them in favor of taking a bite of his omelet.
Tom grumbled but not because of the twins. “How come I can't use that spell?”
“Because you'll abuse it and use it on them constantly,” Harry said in exasperation.
The twins tugged desperate at their binds. Rom even tired taking a bite out of the vines only to gag in alarm. “Mommy, this tastes like broccoli!”
Hadrian snickered, and even Lily smiled wanly. Tom took in her pale and wan appearance, her freckles standing out in stark relief, with just a niggling of concern. Dark circles underlined her dulled green eyes. This was new territory for him. His eldest three boys, even James, weren't this sensitive so he was at a loss as to how to deal with his daughter.
“Lily.”
Her eyes jerked to his, with the full expectation that she was in trouble. “Yes, father?”
“You know Nagini won't eat you.”
“Tom!” Harry groaned beside him before turning to Lily. “What he means is you are perfectly safe with Nagini and if you want to talk about last night then we're here to listen.”
Reggie stopped with his struggles and looked up in interest. “Why are we talking about Nagini eating Lily? Did she try to eat Lily last night?” He looked down and patted his thighs. Nagini slithered close and rested her great head on his lap. “Nagini, did you eat anybody last night?”
Before she could answer, Harry spoke up. “Nagini, silence! And please don't eat what the twins feed you. You'll get sick again.”
Rom slapped his hand on the black marble table in excitement, almost bouncing off his seat. “So, she did eat somebody! Who'd she eat? Was it Uncle Draco? He held us against our will, papa!”
Around a mouthful of broccoli smothered in cheese-where did they get that cheese, and in such a hideous shade of yellow too? Tom hadn't seen any of the elves serve that-Reggie mumbled “If anyone should get eaten he should.”
“When did Malfoy put his hands on you?” Tom growled.
With a wave of his wand, Harry made the glob of yellow cheese smothering the broccoli pieces disappear. “It was nothing Tom. The twins cast the medusa curse on Cerise and she cast an itching spell on their clothes so they went running out the room naked. Thankfully Draco found them before they could go on a flashing spree. And don't you think I've forgiven you for the curse.”
“But mommy, we said we were sorry!” The twins said in perfect unison.
Salazar, looking extremely put out that he wasn't to have a silent meal slid out his wand from his wrist holster and pointed it at the twins. Two broccoli florets were shoved into their mouths, shutting them up. But the little ones continued to try to speak around the broccoli only to find their lips practically glued around it. It was either eat it or have it stuck in their mouths.
Taking out her own wand, Lily cast a deafening spell on the twins and Cerise, who couldn’t care more. She was too busy eating strawberries and cutting up her omelet into the shape of a dragon. “Mom, I'm fine. I was just taken by surprise, it all happened so fast. I'm not really scared of Nagini.”
“It's perfectly fine to fear what Nagini did. It was terrible and you shouldn’t have had to see that. For which your father is very sorry,” Harry looked to Tom in expectation.
The older wizard raised a brow but none the less nodded. “It is unfortunate you saw that but a Slytherin does not let insults to their name stand.”
“I agree, so get it over with,” Salazar chimed in caustically.
He grunted lowly when Hadrian elbowed his side. “Shut up, Sally. Not everyone has the emotional range of a troll like you.”
“Clever,” Salazar drawls. With a casual flick of his finger, one of the broccoli on Reggie’s plate went flying into Hadrian’s mouth. The boy almost choked on it before coughing it out on the table.
“Boys! I am not above putting you both into time out, adults or not!” Harry snapped. Orion cried out and Harry turned all his attention of his baby. He bounced him up and down in place.
They were saved from further altercations when an owl flew into the room. It dropped a rolled-up newspaper in front of Tom. The brown speckled bird landed in front of Alfred, who fed it bits of his bread roll. The twins tried to entice it to take some of their broccoli off their plates but they got pecked by the bird’s sharp beak. Teddy and James finally broke out of their little bubble and looked over to Tom with interest, James with a slight frown marring his handsome features.
“Why are you getting the Daily Prophet?” James asked.
Ignoring his son for now, Tom pulled open the string and let the parchment roll open. An article on last night’s festivities stared up him. A small hand written note at the corner of the paper read “enjoy”. Curious, Harry reached across his plate and put his hand over the article to pull the paper to him before Tom could stop him. As soon as his hand touched on it, the ink swirled together before forming a completely different article. Harry snatched his hand away with a sharp intake of breath to see written in bold letters The Making of a Tragedy. And under the title was a moving picture of Harry, with one corner of his lip split and deep indentations of teeth marks embedded into his neck and shoulder, still rusty with dried blood. The marks and cuts faded as Severus Snape waved his wand over Harry's face. The clip played repeatedly, an injured Harry to a healed one and then back again. A vicious cycle.
Tom snatched it up and began quickly scanning the article. His face growing darker by every word. Too engrossed with the article, he didn't notice as ten more owls flew into the room and dropped the same newspaper in front of each of ten inhabitants of the room. Harry quickly snatched up the articles from in front of the twins and Cerise, but he was too slow to get it from the others. Alfred grasped at the roll and stood from the table, walking a few steps away. He cried out in distress when his hands touched the paper and the picture of Harry appeared, before horrified eyes darted to Harry.
“Mom?” Alfred breathed, his lower lip trembling. Harry clutched at his collar and shook his head. He looked over to his older children. They were all reading the article, even Teddy. Salazar glanced up and caught Harry's eye, his face oddly blank. But Hadrian had a death grip on the table before him, the other wrinkling the paper in his hands in his white knuckled grip.
It was Teddy’s look of pity and sympathy that broke Harry. “Tom?” The green-eyed wizard turned to Tom, no longer able to face his children.
The older wizard crumpled the paper before he burned it in his hand. He stormed from the room, scattering the ash from the paper in his wake and leaving Harry to deal with the aftermath. Hsi wand was lifted and casting the spell before Harry knew it, and all the papers burst into flames. Lily hissed and shook her hands as the paper almost burned her fingers. She stuck her finger into her mouth to soothe the sting. An apology was tripping off Harry's tongue when he saw that his spell had been defected by Hadrian, who had his wand out in a defensive stance but was still glaring at the picture. So Harry followed in Tom's steps apparated out of the room with Orion screeching in his arms.
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Harry Potter and the Slytherin Heirs