evelynn | t.riddle

15 | DECEPTIONS UNCOVERED

About three days after the incident with Billy Stubbs, Tom and Evelynn are looking through the trunk of books she got from the Room of Hidden Things in her trunk. And there's a lot—enough to fill up a few Mansions and then some, with plenty left over. Evelynn placed numerous Containment Wards on books and artefacts just to be safe - since some of them look just plain weird, and she's not sure what half of them even are - old-looking jewellery, even a few Wands. And that last one simply amazed Tom all the more: how could you lose your WAND?! It's literally the first thing he checks for, one hand going under his pillow, where he keeps it out of sheer habit and paranoia.

In an effort to distract himself from multiple people's stupidity, carelessness, or circumstances of being severely outnumbered, Tom asks, "So, this Room...it has just about everything?"

Evelynn nods from the trunk, glancing up from where she was digging around in the Expanded space for more interesting-looking books, and says, "Everything you could possibly imagine, Tom. Well, it used to, anyway. Sports equipment, jewellery, books, clothes, furniture...everything. I packed most of them into these trunks to fix up and sell for some money. There were one or two broken artefacts that I just Banished, for instance, a broken Time-Turner that was taking this potted plant in an endless and, frankly, creepy and slightly terrifying cycle of coming to life and dying in moments. We might want to hold off on selling the books until we know what a few of them are. Orion and Walburga would be good to ask."

Tom glances up at Evelynn, in full agreement on the looping Time-Turner, and asks, "Why them?"

Evelynn pulls out a book and off-handedly says, "They're the oldest Blacks, Tom. And the Blacks have one hell of a collection of books and artefacts. Biggest that I know of, in fact. The Peverells might have something bigger, but that would require finding a property they owned that hasn't basically collapsed over time, I'm not sure." Even after the war, she didn't get to just waltz into Gringotts and learn more about her family, heritage, etc. No, she had to piece together things that had been kept from her - traditions, culture, the Pureblood side of the whole 'Blood Purity' issue, everything - while hiding out in various ruined manors. At least, this is what she gathered from the Lestrange Manor - the Purebloods didn't reject the Muggle-borns because of their blood, but their ignorance. Their apparent refusal to learn more about the world they were entering. This makes a lot of sense - it's entering a new culture, albeit one hidden from you, and refusing to learn about it.

Not that the Muggle-raised kids had any way of learning about the culture at the time. All the traditions, the Magical Holidays, everything...banned for years, labelled 'Dark' and ripped out of everyday life and knowledge by Albus Dumbledore once he was solidly into his role as the 'Leader of the Light' after he 'beat' Grindelwald. Knowing what she knows now...she's torn between believing he actually fought the guy and wondering if he just took credit for someone else's work. It's hardly impossible, after all - raised on lies and manipulation, and Albus Dumbledore took to it like a duck to water. Of course, he'd be able to talk his way into the fame.

Tom hums, then nods and says, "Good point. We'll wait on the books until then. Let's start looking through the clothes." Maybe they'll find something good in there, or that'll fit - if it's already the right size, simply changing how it looks is easy. Or maybe he can sell them to Madam Malkin or somewhere else that sells clothes, Evelynn did say he was good at what he did when he worked at Borgin and Burke's - of course, she also said he ended up buying things after talking the Owner into lowering the price somehow or other.

Evelynn grins at him and says, "I figured you'd want to go straight to the artefacts I found that weren't doing anything too weird, Tom. It was a toss-up between them and the books."