XXXIV: The Heirs of Slytherin

Chapter XXXIV: The Heirs of Slytherin

Morgaine was surprised to say the least when not the ancient elf but Lucius himself came to fetch her for dinner. He was wearing expensive-looking tailored robes and a most charming smile.

'How are you feeling, my dear? Did you get any rest?'

Morgaine frowned. It almost seemed as if Lucius seriously believed that she had chosen to stay in her room all afternoon. He even looked concerned and kept his voice low, as if he were standing by someone's sickbed. But then again, he was right. Morgaine had indeed felt abysmal for the better part of the afternoon, and that feeling had had little to do with her being locked up. Her headache had increased to a point where she had been forced to lie down if she didn't want to throw up. And she had felt cold, so terribly cold. But both the headache and the chill had vanished a short while ago. It was as if someone had switched them off.

'I hope you are feeling strong enough to join us for dinner,' Lucius continued, courteously reaching out his hand towards her. 'We have missed you. Especially Demeter.'

What lies had he told Demeter, Morgaine wondered. Her and everyone else? And how much of it had they believed?

'Would you like to get changed?' Lucius asked next, his voice still sweet as honey. 'I can send for my elf.'

Morgaine declined his offer. The robes she was wearing were her own, and she felt safe in them somehow. She didn't want to wear anything Lucius had chosen. Goodness only knew what kind of outfit he would pick.

Two steps into the corridor, Morgaine hesitated, casting a furtive glance over her shoulder towards the door that had guarded her prison all afternoon. It was strange. She had felt desperate on the other side of that door, without hope, and had fought against tears for the last couple of hours. But now the feeling was gone, had been for about five minutes before Lucius had opened the door, just as her headache and the chill. Strange.

'Don't worry, Morgaine,' Lucius cooed softly, misinterpreting her look towards the door. He was holding her close and now gently brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. Certainly, he thought it a comforting gesture. 'The Riverbeds have already eaten. There will only be Demeter and me. You don't have to be strong for us. And should you feel faint, then I will escort you back to your room at once. All you have to do is to tell me.'

He led her slowly down the stairs, talking in soft tones and holding her arm ever so gently, as if she were indeed ill and needed to be taken care of. And the looks he was giving her were filled with so much compassion that Morgaine started wondering if he had started to believe his own lies.

At the foot of the stairs, they were met by Aleksandra. Her hair was slightly dishevelled, and she looked as if she had put on her dress in great haste.

'Lucius,' she breathed, 'the potion ...'

'Aleksandra, my dearest heart,' Lucius interrupted her. 'This is not a good time. Morgaine is not feeling well. I told you so earlier.'

'But, Lucius!'

Aleksandra looked distressed, to say the least. And with a deep sigh, Lucius surrendered to the pleading look in her eyes.

'Morgaine, I almost don't dare asking,' he started, uncharacteristically tentatively. 'I know you must be longing to see your daughter and fill your belly with some warm soup, but ... There is this potion ... I would normally not bother you, but it is a holiday, and the Apothecary is closed. And you are one of the best in the field.'

'You aren't too bad yourself, Lucius,' Morgaine replied politely. If he was trying to flatter her, she might just as well do the same. The likes of Lucius always responded well to flattery. Besides, Lucius had indeed done well in Potions back in his days at Hogwarts, and Morgaine wanted to show him that she knew a thing or two about him as well.

'I wouldn't dare attempting this Potion myself,' Lucius exclaimed. 'Well, the brewing is simple enough, but collecting the ingredients ...' He gave a theatrical shudder and lay his hand almost protectively over Morgaine's hand, that was still resting on his forearm. 'Aleksandra, I think we should wait. Morgaine needs more rest. We wouldn't want her hands to shake ...'

'What kind of ingredients are we talking about?' Morgaine asked. It was just as well to feign interest, she decided. No matter how much he was pretending, there was no way that Lucius was seriously concerned about her shaking hands. This was just a game, an act to make her believe that she had a choice, while in truth, he had long since decided that she would prepare those ingredients and eventually brew the potion for him.

'Ah, Morgaine.' Lucius patted her hand and looked at her. Never before had a man looked that grateful. 'Just the ingredients before dinner, I promise. I cannot have you brewing in your condition. You need to rest.'

They descended another flight of stairs to the little Potions lab where Morgaine had been working earlier that week, Lucius still supporting her as if she were made out of glass and Aleksandra walking in front of them, ever so often looking back over her shoulder. There was something in her eyes Morgaine couldn't define. Was it jealousy, maybe? After all, Lucius – her lover – had been rather short to Aleksandra while making a big fuss over Morgaine.

Once in the lab, Morgaine winced involuntarily. She didn't really know what kind of ingredients she had expected, but she had most certainly not been prepared for a glass container filled with snakes.

'Beautiful creatures,' Lucius whispered, 'but deadly. And I am not good with them.'

'What do you need from them?' Morgaine asked in a matter-of-fact tone. 'Fangs? Skin?'

'Their poison.'

She had feared that much. The snakes coiling around each other in the glass container were among the most poisonous on the planet: an olive-coloured Inland Taipan, a beautiful reddish Common Brown and a fierce-looking black Tiger Snake.

'You want me to milk them?' Morgaine asked.

'If you feel up to the task,' Lucius replied, once more giving her one of his compassion-filled looks. 'I would be forever grateful.'

As if she had a choice. Morgaine had no idea so far why Lucius wanted her to collect the venom of those snakes, but she knew that he would not let her go before she had fulfilled her task. And maybe, if she pleased him, he would tell her what he wanted the poison for.

'Will you separate them for me?' she asked with a small smile. 'I seem to have misplaced my wand.' There was a flash of annoyance in Lucius' grey eyes as she mentioned her wand, but Morgaine pretended that she hadn't noticed. 'I wouldn't want the other two snakes to attack while I pick up the first one.'

'Of course not.' Lucius' lips curled into a smile. Not an ounce of annoyance remained.

He drew his own wand, and soon the three snakes were separated by magical barriers within the glass container, and Morgaine stepped forward, observing the animals closely to decide which one was the calmest. She would start with that one.

'Fascinating creatures, aren't they?' Lucius pointed out from the other side of the table, caressing the snake head on his cane with his left hand.

'Indeed,' Morgaine replied absent-mindedly. She was concentrating on the Taipan. It wasn't the calmest of the three snakes, on the contrary. While the other two lay quite motionless in their part of the container, the Taipan was lifting its black head and hissing threateningly. But still Morgaine was unable to take her eyes of it.

'You are accustomed to them, of course,' Lucius continued, his eyes as intently on Morgaine as hers were on the snake. 'I assume you use snake venom on a daily basis.'

'Not many potions in the curriculum contain snake venom,' Morgaine explained, now picking up a glass jar with her left hand, still not taking her eyes off the Taipan. 'And in the rare cases we do need to use it, I order bottled venom. I wouldn't want a whole class of giddy teenagers attempting to milk snakes. Poppy would have my head for it.'

The Taipan seemed to be calming down now. Soon she might dare grab it.

Lucius chuckled. 'Yes, I assume that your reputation as a responsible teacher would suffer immensely should you have to send half of your class to the hospital wing at once. But for your own studies, do you extract your own venom?'

'I am not too fond of snakes,' Morgaine confessed. 'I was fifteen when I saw one for the first time, and I've never quite warmed up to them.'

Her hand shot into the container at such a speed that the snake did not even have time to react, and as Morgaine lifted the animal up, gripping it firmly by the neck, it did not even struggle. Instead, it willingly sank its fangs into the membrane that was stretched over the jar in Morgaine's hand, filling the jar up with yellowish poison. And when Morgaine put the snake back into the container, it coiled up immediately, looking as calm as a kitten.

'In any case, snakes seem to warm up to you rather quickly,' Lucius commented.

'Anyone can milk a snake. One needs to be patient and wait for the animal to calm down.'

'Or, one tells the snake to calm down.'

Morgaine looked up, and the look in Lucius' eyes made her almost drop the glass jar she had just sealed. He looked beyond excited, greedy. The last time he had looked at her like that, he had wanted to bed her.

'You do have the gift,' he said hoarsely, wetting his lips with the tip of his tongue.

'What gift?' Morgaine asked, not really wanting to get an answer to that question.

'You can talk to snakes.'

Morgaine snorted. 'Oh, don't be ridiculous, Lucius. I am not a Parselmouth.'

'And that, Morgaine, is where you have been fooled for many years.'

He came closer, and Morgaine instinctively took some steps backwards, scanning the room for an escape route. But Lucius was standing between her hand the door, and the door was closed. Aleksandra might even have locked it when she had left.

'Why do you think you were sent to be brought up in a godforsaken place like Iceland?' Lucius asked, his eyes glittering. 'Why do you think you were taught to restrain your Legilimency only one year after your arrival in the Wizarding world? Wasn't that what Dumbledore and Severus did, teach you how to shield yourself from the voices in your head, instead of teaching you how to hear them properly?'

Morgaine didn't answer.

'Dumbledore wanted to destroy your gift,' Lucius hissed. 'He did not want you to realise that you can talk to snakes. So you were taught to shield your mind, and the snakes' voices just blended in with all the other voices you could hear. The more skilled you became at Occlumency, the less clear the voices became, and you never realised that some of them were not human.'

'I am not a Parselmouth,' Morgaine repeated, taken aback by how shrill her voice sounded all of a sudden. Still she was backing away from Lucius, and he was coming ever closer.

'Prove it,' Lucius hissed.

'I will do no such thing!'

The door flew open, and in came Aleksandra, Demeter at her hand. And Lucius acted immediately. He crossed the room in a blink of an eye, grabbed the girl by the hand, pushed her into a corner from where she could not escape, Levitated the glass container from the table and let it smash right in front of her feet.

The snakes reacted according to their nature. Startled by the noise, infuriated at having landed on the cold stone floor, they rose and hissed and struck against the first warm-blooded being they could reach. The Brown missed, but the Tiger sank its fangs into the leather of Demeter's boots.

'NO!' Morgaine's scream echoed from the walls of the lab. 'You will not harm her.'

The scene froze. The Brown, that had been about to strike again, seemed suspended in mid-air, mouth open and fangs bared, and the Tiger lay quite still on the floor, almost as Petrified.

Lucius was the first to move. He lazily waved his wand, and the snakes vanished in a puff of black smoke. 'Funny,' he said in a light tone. 'Demeter reacted in exactly the same way. Didn't she, Aleksandra?'

Aleksandra nodded, an anxious look on her face. 'The snake struck his boot,' she whispered. 'I want to check on him.'

His boot? What did she mean, his boot? The Tiger had attacked Demeter not Lu...

Subconsciously, Morgaine knew what she would see long before she could tear her eyes from the spot from where the snakes had vanished. And as she had suspected, Demeter's raven black hair was already turning blond.

'You used Polyjuice Potion on your own son?' Morgaine exclaimed, her voice dripping with disgust. That was a new low even for Lucius Malfoy.

He, however, seemed perfectly calm. 'I couldn't use Demeter, could I? As she had already demonstrated her abilities, she would probably have called off the snakes herself. It would have been a shame if she had spoken Parseltongue before you had a chance to.'

'Where is Demeter?' Morgaine demanded to know. And if Lucius didn't tell her, she would be prepared to force the whole jar of Taipan venom down his throat.

'Demeter's in your room,' Aleksandra sniffled, wrapping her arms around Melvin, who had now returned to his own shape. His eyes, however, looked oddly blank.

'Why don't you bring Morgaine upstairs, Aleksandra?' Lucius suggested in his sweetest tone. 'I've seen what I wanted to see.'

'I am not going to leave Melvin alone with you,' Aleksandra shrieked. There were now tears streaming down her face, and she was clutching her son against her chest as if she were afraid someone would take him from her.

'Then for goodness' sake, take the boy with you.' Lucius seemed suddenly annoyed. 'I expected more backbone of you, woman. But then again, I should have know that you are ... weak. Just like the rest of your family.'

He approached her swiftly, cupped her chin and claimed kisses from her, which Aleksandra seemed most unwilling to give. But Lucius did not seem to mind. Judging from the way he ground his hips against her, he actually enjoyed her reluctance.

'Bring Morgaine upstairs,' he repeated as they broke apart. 'Make sure the door is warded properly, and then come to my room.'

'But Melvin ...'

'The boy is fine,' Lucius interrupted her impatiently as he cast a glance at Melvin's boot. 'The snake's fang did not even penetrate the leather. And the other effects will wear off soon enough. Bring him to your brother's room. They can recuperate together.'

He turned to leave.

'Half an hour, Aleksandra,' he said at the door. 'If you are not in my room by then, I will have to punish you. As for you Morgaine, try to rest. You and Demeter have an important day ahead of you tomorrow.'

Neither Morgaine nor Aleksandra spoke. As soon as Lucius had left, Morgaine wordlessly checked Melvin's foot, making sure that there had really not been any damage, and after that she followed mother and son up the stairs, not even thinking about making a break for it. Her daughter was waiting upstairs. And Demeter was all that mattered right now.

Outside the door, Aleksandra broke the silence. 'I am so sorry, Morgaine.'

'What are you sorry for?' Morgaine asked, her voice cold. Without having to think hard, she could come up with about twenty reasons for Aleksandra to apologise. Fraternising with Lucius Malfoy was one.

'I didn't know.' Aleksandra's voice was thick with tears, and her arms were still wrapped around her son. The boy seemed not to have any willpower whatsoever. 'I didn't know what Lucius was planning. I thought he had come to see me. I didn't know he was planning to trap you.'

Morgaine felt her heart soften somewhat. Aleksandra was not the first witch Lucius he had fooled. Nor would she be the last.

'And then after lunch, when he sent the children to their rooms and told Alek and me ...'

'Where is your brother?' Morgaine interrupted Aleksandra. Lucius had said that Alek was recuperating.

'He is in his room,' Aleksandra sobbed. 'When Lucius demanded that Melvin and I impersonated Demeter and you, Alek objected. He even threatened to throw Lucius out of the house. Lucius got angry and said that Alek had no choice since he had sworn his loyalty, and then Lucius ... Lucius cursed him. Oh, Morgaine, it was horrible. He was twitching on the floor, screaming in agony.'

So Lucius had used two Unforgivable Curses on the Riverbeds that afternoon. The Cruciatus Curse on Alek and – judging by the oddly blank look in Melvin's eyes – the Imperius Curse on his own son.

'Melvin did not want to trick you,' Aleksandra went on, hugging her son tighter towards her. 'So Lucius made him, and threatened he would torture him as well if I didn't do as I was told. I had no choice.'

Her sobs drowned any other words she tried to utter, and Morgaine just looked at her hostess, wanting to feel sorry for her but finding herself being unable to. There was no time. Her priorities lay elsewhere.

'Bring Melvin to Alek and ward their door against intruders,' she instructed Aleksandra. 'They both need time to rest. And on my door, put any wards Lucius has instructed you to.'

'But I don't want to lock you in!' Aleksandra exclaimed.

'Do you really think I'd be able to leave the manor?' Morgaine asked. 'Lucius is not dumb. He told you to lock me in to test your loyalties, nothing else. And you will do best to do as you are told, for all our sakes.'

~ ~ ~

'This is my fault, all my fault.'

'There, there, Minerva, calm down. You couldn't have known.'

Kingsley Shacklebolt handed the distraught Headmistress a glass of Scotch, which Minerva – to everyone's surprise – declined. But then again, her behaviour over the last twenty minutes had been anything but characteristic for the otherwise so stern woman.

Severus hadn't been in her office when Kingsley had arrived with the news, but as he now read the parchment on Minerva's desk he could very well imagine her clutching her chest and sinking onto her chair. He himself couldn't quite believe what he was reading.

'How could the Ministry have missed such a vital piece of information?' he asked Kingsely, who flinched slightly at the look on the ghost's face. With every right. The scowl that Severus was sporting was of the darkest shade possible. But his voice was surprisingly calm.

'I am having my best people working on that right now,' Kingsley explained, his hands still resting comfortingly on Minerva's shaking shoulders. 'Trust me, I want to find out as badly as you do who is responsible for this.'

'Your best people?' Severus sneered. 'Are those the same people that didn't know that Alek Riverbed has been suspected of being a Death Eater?'

'There isn't any record of that in our archives,' Kingsley replied. 'I checked myself. Not a single file carries the name Alek Riverbed.'

'But the persons he associated with according to this report,' Severus indicated the piece of parchment in front of him, 'they have all been rounded up, found guilty and been sent to Azkaban. Why was Riverbed not investigated?'

Kingsley shrugged. 'That's what I am trying to find out.'

'I allowed a Death Eater into the school,' Minerva mumbled.

'A suspected Death Eater,' Kingsley tried to calm her, but with little effect.

'I endangered everyone. By the gods, I even encouraged Morgaine to befriend him.'

'This is not your fault, Minerva.' It was the first time Dumbledore spoke since Severus had entered the office. The hem of his robe looked slightly singed, but otherwise he seemed not to have suffered any damage from the ghost's acid attack. 'None of us knew about Professor Riverbed's connection to those people. And if he indeed is – or was – a Death Eater, then he managed to fool all of us equally.'

'If?' Kingsley butted in. 'You don't believe he carries the Mark?'

'Does it matter?' Dumbledore asked. 'He wouldn't be the first to have made that mistake.'

The old Headmaster's eyes came to rest on Severus, but the ghost ignored him. He would never talk to Dumbledore again, no matter what.

'But if he is a Death Eater,' Minerva interjected. 'If he is one, and if he's keeping Morgaine and Demeter hostage, what is it he wants from them?'

No one answered, and as the minutes ticked by and turned into hours, the only thing that could be heard in the office was the rustling of Kingsley's robes as he paced the room and Minerva's stifled sobs.

Then an owl arrived.

'They tracked down the Auror who was in charge of the investigation,' Kingsley announced triumphantly, but his face fell as he read through the parchment. 'He wasn't of much help. Janus Thickey Ward, severe brain damage, caused by some nasty spells and curses. Someone tried to shut him up.'

'So he couldn't tell the investigators anything about Alek Riverbed?' Minerva asked desperately. 'Nothing at all?'

'He gave them a name,' Kingsley said slowly, his face draining of colour. 'Just one name. Lucius Malfoy.'

~ ~ ~

'Mother, I can talk to snakes!'

It was hard to tell if Demeter was excited or scared, and Morgaine just took the girl by the hand and made her sit down beside her on the bed.

'I know you can, little one,' she said calmly.

'Of course you know,' Demeter exclaimed. 'You heard me stop the snakes. They were about to bite you.'

'That wasn't me.'

Demeter looked puzzled.

'Lucius tricked you. He wanted to find out whether you can talk to snakes. He did the same thing to me.'

'You can talk to snakes, too?' Demeter seemed to be more surprised by that fact than she was shocked over Lucius Malfoy staging two snake attacks.

Morgaine nodded.

'Why have you never told me?' Demeter demanded to know.

'I didn't know. And I hoped we couldn't,' Morgaine replied. She sounded tired, just about as tired as she felt. 'I desperately hoped that neither of us was able to talk to snakes.'

'Is that a bad thing then?' Demeter wondered. Her blue eyes were inquisitive, and Morgaine tried to avoid them.

'Parseltongue doesn't just suddenly appear in a family,' Morgaine explained, wishing she wouldn't have to. Explaining everything to Demeter made the whole thing ... real.

'Parseltongue is a rare gift that can only be found in certain families,' she continued. 'As neither my grandmother nor Dumbledore can talk to snakes, we have to assume that we inherited this gift from my father.'

'And you never met your father,' Demeter pointed out. 'So you didn't know.'

'No, I didn't know.'

'You said Parseltongue was very rare. Now that you know that you can speak to snakes, wouldn't it be quite easy to find out who your father is?'

Morgaine couldn't help but smile at the girl's logic. She was right, of course. But Morgaine didn't want proof of who her father was. Not when the only known Parselmouth old enough to be her father had been one of the darkest wizards of all times.

They didn't talk more about Parseltongue as Morgaine cunningly distracted Demeter by starting to talk about Melvin. But she only listened half-heartedly to what the girl had to say. She had neither the energy nor the peace of mind. Then Lucius' elf brought some sandwiches, and after having eaten, Morgaine sent Demeter to bed.

She herself, however, didn't find any sleep. Although she knew that she would need all her strength and wits to meet Lucius the next day, she kept pacing the room, every so often casting a furtive glance towards Demeter. How ever was she supposed to protect her child, now that Lucius had found the answer he had been looking for ever since the day he had learnt of Demeter's existence? Or had he been looking for that answer even longer, Morgaine wondered. Maybe even since she herself had been born? And now that he had found the answer, what did he intend to do with his newfound knowledge?

The clock struck midnight as Morgaine looked out of the window. The storm had subsided somewhat, but is was still snowing, and despite the darkness, Morgaine thought that she once more could make out shadows in the back yard. Tall, hooded figures with flapping cloaks. And suddenly she imagined hearing their rattling breaths.

Her blood froze to ice, and she sank soundlessly to the floor, burying her face in her hands. And as the tears ran down her cheeks, Morgaine felt herself being drained of hope. It was over. Her past had caught up with her, and she had nowhere to run.