Defence and Mayhem

Drama Queen Tendencies

This is the second part of a triple update, make sure you have read the first part.

I decided to split this chapter and add the second part of it to the next chapter, which will take a while since I need to add connections between the chapters, so the next part of the triple update will be delayed to tomorrow

The Knights of Walpurgis were Tom's proof of leadership abilities. It was no easy feat to gather a prideful bunch of self-centered Slytherins of different ages and personal agendas under one goal.

It had taken the better part of a year for them to fully respect his authority, and even then their doubtful nature surfaced once in a while, making them act out of line. Nothing that a good discipline by completely overpowering magical force, namely, a good old torture curse(whichever one suited his mood best) and a silver-tongued verbal berating couldn't fix. 

But he had proved himself superior, and they knew to obey without question after a few shows of power. And it's not like they were forced. 

No. 

They were absolutely eager to eat whatever he dished for them out of his hand.

After all, what else could feed their sense of self-importance more than being part of the most brilliant wizard of the generation's rise to glory?

So they happily united under his goal.

A goal that with the recent year's happenings needed to be redefined

Which caused the most important mission of his Knights- helping the rise of the Dark Magical Faction- to be held back completely for an entire school year.

Tom wished for Dark Magic to rise to power for him to be able to openly practice it, and so he set on to raise it himself.

Tom knew that in order to unite the Dark Magical Faction under one goal the influence of a Dark Lord was needed. Grindelwald, while named a Dark Lord, had little to do with the interest of the Dark as much as the interest of the Anti-Muggle.

So Tom decided to do better than him.

But then Harrison came along and Tom needed to focus on the attainability of his agendas.

Which brought him back to the issue at hand.

The meetings with The Knights in the past year, while still held as normal, focused less on their main goal and more on small things like influence at Hogwarts and policy changes that the older Knights could bring to the Ministry upon graduation, policies that, while ideal to change, were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. 

His need for reassessment of his means of moving his ambitions forward hindered their progress, and while none of his Knights were fully aware of his slight wavering, he knew some felt that something was amiss.

He needed to call upon his Knights to re-establish their route of action.

He had to reassure his Knights of his determination and lure them into further entrancement with himself and his will so his plans could sail smoothly

Now that he lived with Harrison, he could invite them to meet over the summer at the Cottage, which serves both as a show of trust and closeness and as a display of status, showing wealth and availability of resources. While the cottage wasn't nearly as impressive as the mansions his Knights lived in, it was obviously but a summer home- meaning it was only a sweet taste of what the Peverell wealth had to show so it could be used for his purposes.

It was decided. He would finalize his year-long contemplations of his path forward, and summon the Knights.

_______________

Tom threw himself into research. He researched all subjects of magic and tried to find any way that they could be used to aid his goals. It was necessary to be thorough. He wanted to be sure his path was sound before he gave the Knights the general inkling of what he wished upon the Wizarding World. 

It took five days. Five days of non-stop research in the cottage's vast library. He was now reassured of the way forward. His goals were roughly the same as before, he just knew how to achieve them better. 

Now the only thing left was to get Harrison to agree to let the Knights come to the Cottage.

Determinedly, he exited the library, heading to the lounge where he felt Harrison's magic. 

Sitting next to Harrison, he gathered himself before speaking.

"I have a favor to ask you."

________________

When Harrison urged Tom to continue, intrigued by Tom's sudden request, the teen went on to explain how he wished to bring over a 'group of like-minded individuals' as Tom called it, so they could discuss 'matters concerning their views of Wizarding society'. 

Tom then proceeded to explain that he formed a 'social circle of ambitious wizards who wished to better the Wizarding World' and that it would mean a lot to him if Harrison would volunteer the place for their meeting 'as it is important to show generosity with wealth and resources when expecting others to invest their own on one's goals'.

So, from what Harrison gathered, Tom needed to flaunt that he's not poor to his clique of Baby Death Eaters and wanted to do so by inviting them over.

Huh.

The fact that the existence of this group meant that Tom was gathering followers didn't bother Harrison as much as he thought it would.

In fact, after actually meeting Tom outside of the whole 'Big Bad Dark Lord' context it really helped Harrison view him differently.

Tom was actually a passionate person and seemed to take great interest when he mentioned True Dark Lords in DADA. Tom probably wanted to be one, as it certainly would fit in with the whole 'being the absolute best at anything and everything' thingy Tom seemed to have going on.

Now that Harrison wasn't prejudiced and knew enough on the subject, he actually didn't mind Tom becoming a Dark Lord. 

Another thing he didn't mind is the absolute first-class entertainment that was the idea of a bunch of Baby Death Eaters bowing with worship, all starry-eyed at a sixteen-year-old's feet, looking at him as if he hung the moon.

They weren't wrong to do so, Tom was powerful, scarily so, but that didn't stop it from being funny. 

Tom was just so dramatic at times, making his clique seem like something other than a group of minions and their 'leader of the herd'. All that grandeur was so over the top, it was just so like him.

When Tom finished his little speech, Harrison was trying to refrain from cackling as he came up with an idea to feed both Tom's Drama Queen's tendencies and his own amusement.

"Well, Tom," he started, "for a start I do wish for you to know that if you have minions, it's okay to call them as such, it's much better than all those stuck-up names you keep referring to them as…" he said with a grin that widened as Tom bulked at his words, mouth ajar at a very un-Tom like manner. 

"But since you asked so nicely," he smugly continued, enjoying Tom's slightly affronted(and was that a pout he was seeing?) look, "how about I let you bring your baby followers to Peverell Castle?"

Harrison started full-on laughing when Tom's reaction was to promptly choke.

Published on Tuesday, 25th of July, 2023