i am lord voldemort • Tom Riddle

Alternative Timeline: XXXIII

Lae frowned. What freak actively liked people doing their utmost to invade his privacy? "No, thank you. Even if I could get into your head, I doubt I could steal your wand the way I did with the other guy, now that I lack the element of surprise. It's not worth the effort."

Plus, days without sustenance left her mind scattered, her body unbearably weak. Even if she wanted to, and against a much more susceptible mind, she doubted she could manage.

"Oh, well. Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to encounter Grindelwald one day. That would certainly be interesting." The suicidal lunatic sounded almost wistful.

"Famous last words."

He snatched up one of the many snacks and began plopping the contents casually into his mouth, a glib show of his own lack of concern for his own mortality. "I earned my position in the Great War, you know. Grindelwald is only one man."

"It's not him you should be afraid of."

"Oh?" His hand, pinching a grape, paused on the way to his lips, raising his eyebrows in mild-mannered interest.

"I won't deny that he's just one man. No matter how powerful he gets, he can't quite overcome that, but he's rarely alone. There's hundreds, if not thousands, of people who would die for his cause — die for him. How many people do you know that would do the same for you?" Despite her best efforts, Lae caught her tone verging on waspish. Under different circumstances, she imagined she'd like Theseus, but his underestimation of her uncle stung at her own pride. "I doubt it's that many."

"Not quite a thousand, no," he admitted. "What about you? Would you die for his cause?"

She recited the usual mantra, tapping her pointer finger rhythmically atop the table. "For the Greater Good, a world where wizards have to hide from muggles no longer." Lae smiled grimly. "It's a nice idea... if it could actually work. They can't even fully decide whether what we want is equality or dominion, and both will began and end in bloodshed. To answer your question, unfortunately, my uncle is the dreamer in the family, not me. I'm not impassioned enough to die for any cause."

"You were certainly willing to starve to death over giving us information just a few minutes ago," he pointed out.

Lae's annoyance intensified. "Don't misunderstand. My moral backbone is nonexistent. I've given up on having noble hills to die on, no thanks to you people." He had enough shame to look abashed. "But I won't betray my uncle again. I can't." Why was she even talking to him? "You never did say what your ploy was."

"No ploy." At her obvious skepticism, he pushed away his food and raised his hands in surrender. Her eyes darted to the pocket of his robes, where she presumed he kept his wand. She wondered how quickly she could bridge the gap between them and nab it before his arms came back down. "Really. I'm just here to keep you alive. If you want to share any information, by all means, share, but my superiors have weighed our options, in light of your stubbornness, and decided no information we could gain by risking your life would be worth the risk. They tossed the idea of the Cruciatus Curse around, very briefly. Ultimately, it also wasn't worth the PR nightmare if the news that we'd used an Unforgivable Curse on a detainee got out. No one was particularly keen on trying, either. Besides, everyone knows information gained from torture is rarely accurate."

"That's... comforting," Lae managed, not sure she felt about the fact that the main thing stopping them from torturing her had little to do with morals or laws, but their fear of being caught. "I'm sure you know more about what my uncle is up to than I do at this point. I've been out of his sphere of influence for years now, so there isn't much for me to tell, even if I wanted to, which, obviously, I don't. What I don't understand is what you need from me that's caused you to hunt me so fiercely if you do quickly gave up on using me as a source of intel."