SERPENT HEART° TOM RIDDLE

044. DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS

"Excellent work, Mercury," Rhea rubbed the top of Mercury's head before tearing the letter open. Rhea realized within the first few days of her stay that they had been withholding her letters from her since she never received word from her grandmother after arriving as promised. She didn't dare ask her father or Vinda about that and took matters into her own hands instead, trusting that Mercury, who was fast as the wind, would be able to hide from the guards. She had  to be extremely careful and very infrequent with the correspondence, so Rialta would only send her one, very long letter with the information Rhea needed to know.

Rhea read through the multiple pages of parchment carefully, reading as Rialta informed her that her grandmother had taken a private meeting with Professor Dumbledore alone. Elvira wouldn't say what they spoke about, but Rhea knew her grandmother would have found a way to convince Dumbledore to fight the wizard. Perhaps one day she'd even tell her how she did it. 

Rhea didn't dare to even think about what they were planning when in the presence of her father, Grindelwald, or any of the other acolytes. Sometimes she couldn't even be sure if her own room was safe enough for her to think about what they were doing out of fear that Grindelwald would hear or see her thoughts. Rhea formed a ball of fire in her hands, preparing to burn the letter before she frowned when she noticed the end of Rialta's letter.

The Riddle boy has written to you a few times as well. Pluto and I managed to grab both of the letters he left for you before your grandmother or uncle had a chance to see them. I tied one of them to Mercury's other leg so that you could read it.

Rhea's lips parted in surprise before she looked at her owl, making out another tiny piece of rolled parchment attached to his leg that she had nearly missed. The paper was torn in half and looked as though it had been balled up at one point, which Rhea could only imagine was Tom's doing and not that of her stepmother. Hesitantly, she opened it, uncertain of what Tom could say to her.

Rhea,

You made me a promise that you would stay by my side until the end of seventh year. Have you forgotten?

Tom Marvolo Riddle

Rhea raised a brow, the corner of her mouth turning up. She wondered what his other letter had said and what happened to it before she burned her letter from her stepmother. Rhea picked up Tom's letter, prepared to burn it too, but she decided against that. Instead, Rhea read over the letter, looking at Tom's question with a slight frown before she picked up her own quill and parchment to write her own response:

Tom,

No, I have not forgotten.

Rhea Augusta Hel

Rhea sent the letter with Mercury and told her bird not to take a response. Rhea tried to listen for Phytios once more without success and she crawled into bed, weak and too tired to change out of her clothes. She closed her eyes with her wand in hand and drifted off to sleep instantly.

Rhea dreamed of three brothers, traveling at twilight when they reached a river that was too dangerous for them to cross. The brothers simply raised their wands and created a bridge that would allow them to cross with ease, but as they did, they were stopped by Death and Death felt cheated. Death offered each brother a gift, three powerful magical items as a reward for being able to evade him. But, Death was a trickster and a cunning liar. He gave the first brother a wand from a nearby elder tree that was more powerful than any wand in existence; the second brother wished to humiliate Death even further and asked for the power to bring loved ones back from the grave, so Death took a stone from the riverbed and created the Resurrection Stone; but the third brother did not trust Death and asked to go from the river without being followed by Death and Death created the Cloak of Invisibility that never lost its power through curses or age. The brothers went their separate ways and Death awaited their fates with glee.