SERPENT HEART° TOM RIDDLE

020. MORS OMNIBUS

Rhea spent time wandering around the quiet halls of the castle since she didn't have classes that day. She was walking by Ravenclaw Tower when she saw Astrea talking to a younger, larger boy. Rhea hid behind a wall and listened in on their conversation.

"Rubeus," Astrea said in a rather stern tone. Rhea had heard this tone on Astrea in passing whenever she was busy scolding other students and flashing her Prefect badge at them. "You know that I have to report you for this, especially in light of the recent attacks —"

"Please don't! Please! He wouldn' hurt anybody." Rubeus cried out. Rhea's brows pulled together as she wondered who 'he' was. "You promised you wouldn't tell no one, Astrea!"

"I won't but what if he —"

"He wouldn'!"

"Acromantulas aren't meant to be pets, Rubeus." Rhea's eyes widened slightly and she eyed Rubeus. This young Gryffindor boy was keeping an acromantula as a pet? But, Rhea didn't understand why Astrea would think it was possible for his acromantula to be the one behind the attacks. Hadn't Tom told her he opened the Chamber? 

"Please don't report me, Astrea." Rubeus said in a quieter, sadder tone. Rhea heard Astrea let out a sad sigh and she saw the girl nod her head.

"Okay, Rubeus. I won't tell, but you have to swear to me that Aragog wasn't the one behind the attack." 

"I swear."

Rhea left her spot and continued down the hall except now she was looking for Tom. She spent the next half hour searching for him until she finally found him staring at a wall opposite of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy on the seventh floor. At the sound of Rhea's footsteps approaching him, Tom spun around and looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

"What do you want?" Tom asked her.

"Why didn't you tell Astrea you opened the Chamber of Secrets?" Rhea asked. Tom's eyes widened when she spoke so freely and he grabbed her by the wrist before pulling her through a door that suddenly appeared in front of them.

Rhea's jaw slackened in surprise when Tom pulled her into a dimly lit room. There was a long wooden table in the center of the room with chairs pushed up against it. A bookshelf filled with tomes that were familiar to Rhea took up one of the walls. She trailed her finger against the spine of the book, Secrets of the Darkest Arts. There was an unlit fireplace on another wall with a dark couch sitting in front of it. But, the thing that caught Rhea's attention the most was the tapestry hanging from the wall behind where the head of the table was supposed to sit. 

Stitched onto the tapestry were the words 'The Knights of Walpurgis' and Rhea stepped closer to it when she saw the figures of people walking around what appeared to be the Ministry. At the center of the tapestry was Tom. His hands were behind his back, but his cold eyes stared directly at Rhea and there was a cruel smile on his face. Rhea could see each of Tom's followers in the tapestry, each one looking malicious and unkind: Abraxas, Orpheus, Avida, Ramsey, Lupe, Cassius, Druella, Astrea, and Jasper. At the bottom of the tapestry were the words Mors Omnibus — death to all.

"The Knights of Walpurgis . . . Is that what you call yourselves?" Rhea asked. She looked over her shoulder where Tom was standing and he looked at her with a rather unimpressed expression. 

"Did you think we wouldn't have a name for ourselves?" Tom retorted. Rhea shrugged in response. "Astrea came up with it. In Christianity, Saint Walpurga is the one who Christians pray to in order to protect against witchcraft. The Knights of Walpurgis came from the holiday Walpurgis Night."

"It could be better. I don't think anyone's going to tremble in fear when they hear Knights of Walpurgis." Rhea glanced around the room. "What is this place? I never knew there was a room here."