𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

the one with the strange spell

They all looked skeptically at me.

"You study?" said the voice of my infamous frenemy, Theodore Nott. "Since when?"

"Since I stepped into Hogwarts," I retorted. "I might have to remind you I was at the top of my class, only third to Hermione and Beau, all through the last two years."

"Who's Beau?" Nott asked, completely overlooking what I said.

"Beaufort Lagrange from Ravenclaw. Know your peers, Nott," Blaise said.

I walked into the compartment, sitting cosily by Draco as Pansy shut the door behind us. After I closed the blinds and casted a Muffiliato, I turned to them. They were all looking darkly at me. I blinked.

"C'mon, you don't expect me to talk about Voldemort now, do you?"

Draco flinched at the name, which was better than the audible shreik of Pansy and the surge of curses from Blaise and Nott.

"We kinda do, yeah," Draco said after a while. "We don't know what happened there in Little Hangelton, or what was the place you mentioned the portkey took you to?"

"Yeah, Little Hangelton. That's where Tom was born," I said softly.

"Who's Tom?" Blaise asked.

"My great aunt Nessie had a Crup named Tom," Nott mused dreamily.

I laughed. "Tom Riddle. That's Voldemort's real name."

Nott stared at me. "My aunt named her Crup after the Dark Lord?"

I grimaced. He was nobody's Lord. Your great aunt is nearly a hundred years old, isn't she? And how long has she had the Crup for?"

"All her life. She told me once she got him when she was accepted into Beauxbatons."

I laughed and said, "Then it's likely that Voldemort was named after your great aunt Nessie's Crup. He's only seventy-four."

Evidently, they were all a little nervous at the constant mention and ridicule of Voldemort's name. So, I quickly added, "He was actually named after his muggleborn father, Tom Riddle Senior."

"What?" Pansy wailed.

"What d'you mean muggleborn?" Blaise asked immediately.

And Nott resorted to cursing again.

"Tom's mother, who was a witch, fed Tom Riddle Sr, a wretched muggle.man, with amormentia, the love potion. She kept him under it's influence for a few years, in which time she gave birth to Voldemort. When she resorted to lifting the potion and letting him know the truth about her, Tom Sr was infuriated and left her. She dropped off Voldemort at an orphanage where he grew up alone until Dumbledore brought him here to Hogwarts."

There was a long hard silence, after which, Draco spoke,"So, he's not a pureblood?"

I shook my head with a smile. "He only hates muggles and upholds the idea of purebloods being supreme because he loves magic and hates his father. Has his father been more acception, maybe he'd not be driven by this hatred at all."

"But how do you know all these?" snarled Nott. "Surely Voldemort,if he has returned at all, didn't offer you a cup of tea and narrated his dad story in Little Hangelton?"

I laughed. He was a horrible person but I liked his humor. "No, but, Dumbledore did offer me tea in his office and told me this. He, afterall, knows Tom the best."

"So, he's back, really really back? About to attack Hogwarts and kill Potter back?" Draco asked.

"Yes," I said, remembering the gory details of his rebirth. "He is back. And he will come for my brother, Draco. And I can't let him."