CHAPTER TWENTY
— death to all
RHEA WAS SHAKEN AWAKE BY SERAPHINA WHEN THE BASILISK CLAIMED ITS FIRST VICTIM. Seraphina's eyes were wide and frantic and the rest of Rhea's roommates were running around the room as they were called out of their beds and told to gather in the common room. As Rhea tied a robe over her nightgown, she knew that Tom had followed through on what he had said to her. After months of waiting, Tom Riddle had finally opened the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk petrified its first victim — a muggleborn Gryffindor named Louisa Miller.
"Headmaster Dippet cancelled classes for the rest of the day while Madam Chevalier tries to help the Gryffindor girl," Davina informed them, walking over to where the group of Slytherin girls were seated in the common room. Rhea glanced around and looked for any sign of Tom, but he and the rest of his band of followers had disappeared while everyone was too busy freaking out over what happened. Davina sat down in the spot beside Seraphina and leaned back in her seat. "That's too bad. I was actually looking forward to double Potions today."
"What do you think it was? What if the thing that attacked Louisa attacks us too?" Seraphina asked, her hands shaking violently. "How are all of you so calm? Someone was attacked!"
The girls turned to Rhea expectantly, pleading for her to calm Seraphina down before the girl lost her head and drew more attention to them.
Rhea forced a sympathetic look on her face and took Seraphina's hand in hers. Seraphina's eyes met Rhea's, wide and fearful, and Rhea smiled kindly at her.
"There's no need to worry, Seraphina. Hogwarts is the safest place for us to be at. I'm sure Headmaster Dippet will find whatever or whoever did this and put a stop to it at once." Rhea reassured Seraphina. Seraphina's shoulders relaxed and she nodded her head at Rhea's words.
"Oh, great," Walburga groaned. Rhea looked over Druella's shoulder and saw a girl with brown hair and an arrogant look on her face making her way over to them. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Here comes Olive Hornby."
Olive Hornby was a girl in their year with a personality so horrible she could put Davina to shame. Olive had been trying to worm her way into their group since first year, but Rhea knew Davina would never allow Olive to be one of them.
"Can you believe someone's been attacked?" Olive asked. Rhea watched amusedly as Olive sat down in the spot beside Persephone. Persephone moved closer to Rhea to distance herself from the girl. "I'm just glad it was a muggleborn Gryffindor instead of one of us."
"One of us." Davina repeated with a laugh. Walburga and Druella hid their chuckles behind their hands and Olive's face flamed red from embarrassment. Davina rolled her eyes at Olive before turning away from the girl and engaging in conversation with Persephone. Olive Hornby stomped away from them, angered.
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."
Tom smirked triumphantly when he realized there was something he knew that Rhea didn't.
"This is the Room of Requirement. It transforms into whatever room you need it to." Tom explained. He sat down at the head of the table. "Now, tell me what you wanted. The others will be here soon."
"Why didn't you tell Astrea you opened the Chamber of Secrets?"
Tom rolled his eyes.
"Astrea doesn't know about everything I do. I chose not to tell her about this. Is that all?"
"No," Rhea said. There had been a question plaguing her mind for the past two days and she wanted answers. "Why did you tell me you were going to open it?"
Tom remained silent. He stared at Rhea and seemed to be trying to decide whether or not he should tell her the truth.
"Don't try to lie to me. I can always tell when someone's lying." Rhea said.
"I told you because you gave me that book." Tom said. Rhea chuckled and leaned against the table. Tom looked up at her with an indifferent expression on his face.
"I saw how you watched me after I cast the Patronus Charm. I think you finally realized how powerful I am and I think you told me you were going to open the Chamber because you realized I'd be a valuable asset to your little group, which is the same reason you brought me in here." Rhea motioned to the room around her and she noticed the way Tom was grinding his teeth together when she spoke. Though he acted nonchalant, she could see that something had changed in the way Tom viewed her after he saw her cast a charm that she wasn't supposed to be able to. "Since your pride won't allow you to ask for my help outright, I'll make it simple for you: I don't want to be a part of your little group because I don't like you all that much and you have nothing to offer me."
"I don't?" Tom raised a brow at her. He rose from his chair and Rhea watched him stride to the bookshelf, slightly intrigued. He pulled a piece of parchment from a book on the shelf. "There's a valued book in your family that has been lost for the last few generations. It's detailed with your entire family history and is enchanted to continue recording it for all eternity."
Rhea froze. She knew what book Tom was talking about, but he didn't understand how he knew about it.
"I know how much you crave approval from your family, so I know this is something you'd want." Tom held the parchment in between his fingers and Rhea stared between the paper and him. "This parchment holds the location of the Hel's Codex. If you join my Knights then I will give it to you."
Rhea's lips formed into a grim line. She didn't understand how Tom had managed to find something that had been lost in her family for nearly a hundred years.
Rhea squared her shoulders and stared coldly at Tom before smiling rather tightly.
"Fine," She decided. She wanted to know where the Hel's Codex was. It was her family's most prized book and she knew she would gain even more favor in her family when they found out she knew the location of the tome. "I'll join."
Tom straightened and Rhea watched as he grabbed a thin black book from the bookshelf and set it on the table before the pair of them. Tom pulled a small dagger from the pocket of his robes and set it between them.
"A blood contract." Rhea said when she recognized what Tom was doing. He opened the book and flipped to a blank page where there was a copy of the contract. Blood contracts were less serious versions of Unbreakable Vows. Blood contracts could be broken, but it would cause great pain if they were.
"The Knights of Walpurgis believe in the purification of the wizarding world from muggle influence. Eventually, we hope to achieve a global dictatorship under a magic regime. By following through with the blood contract and joining the Knights of Walpurgis, you are saying that you will do whatever it takes to fight for our cause, even if it costs you your life, and you agree to follow me, your leader."
Rhea read over the wording of the contract. The wording was very specific, but Rhea knew what it would all mean. By joining, she would be giving Tom Riddle some sort of control over her.
"I'll sign this if you agree to my conditions." Rhea said.
"Conditions? There are no conditions."
"There will be." Rhea said. "I want to know where the Hel's Codex is, but you need me. You won't find anyone who knows magic — light and dark — like I do. If I join your Knights of Walpurgis, I won't just fall in line blindlessly behind you like the rest of them do. I want to be able to say no to you."
"No."
"Then, consider our deal off."
Rhea went to leave and she reached the door when Tom let out a strangled noise.
"You can't openly oppose me in front of the others. They might believe they can follow in your example if that happens." Tom said. A small, satisfied smile formed on Rhea's face and she turned around to face Tom.
"I'll do it in private then." Rhea said. Tom raised his eyes to the sky as though he was asking some higher power to give him enough strength to deal with Rhea before he went to amend the contract. "Next, I want my contract to end on the last day of seventh year."
"No," Tom said. "The contracts don't have end dates for a reason."
"I know. It's because you don't want your followers to ever leave, but I'm telling you that once we're done with Hogwarts, you and I will be done too. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life following you, Riddle. That is my final condition."
Rhea never broke eye contact with Tom when she spoke. The pair of them stared at each other, sizing the other up to see who would bend first. Tom dug his nails in the palm of his hand before he raised his quill up to add to the contract.
Rhea had seen her father and Grindelwald perform blood contracts before so she was familiar with what to do. She lifted the dagger from the table to create a long cut down the palm of her hand. She didn't react when red blood pooled from the wound and began running down the sides of her hand. Tom held a phial underneath her hand and her blood dripped into the glass phial.
When Rhea was finished, she mumbled a spell underneath her breath and watched as the wound on her hand closed up. She was so distracted with healing herself that she wasn't prepared when Tom yanked a strand of her honey coloured hair from her head and mixed it into the phial.
"Sign." Tom commanded, handing her a black and green quill. Rhea dipped the end of the quill into the phial and in big, bold letters she wrote: Rhea Augusta Hel and officially joined the Knights of Walpurgis.
When she finished, Tom put the book away and the door to the Room of Requirements opened. Rhea stared as Avida and Druella walked into the room. Avida froze in surprise when she saw Rhea standing in the room, but Druella didn't look in Rhea's direction as she sat in one of the chairs towards the end.
"What are you doing here?" Avida asked, walking over to Rhea.
"I'm one of you now." Rhea said. Avida turned to Tom for confirmation, but he ignored the question on her face.
"Sit down in your seat, Avida. When everyone arrives, I'll explain." Tom said. Avida nodded her head obediently and sat down a few seats away from Druella.
Tom used his wand to light a fire in the fireplace while Rhea went to sit in the seat beside the head of the table, but stopped when she saw the stares Druella and Avida were giving her.
"What?" Rhea asked.
Avida leaned over and whispered, "We sit in a specific order. If you want to sit beside Tom then you have to work your way up to it. That's Abraxas's seat and he'd lose his head if he saw you sitting there."
"This is where you will sit, Rhea." Tom pulled out a chair at the very end of the table. Rhea didn't say anything as she made her way over to her seat. There was a chair separating herself and Avida that she wondered who it belonged to as the door to the room opened again.
Rhea turned to the door and made eye contact with Lupe Nott. Lupe heaved out a sigh when he saw her before making his way to his seat. After Lupe's appearance, it didn't take long for the rest of the Knights of Walpurgis to pile into the room after. Each one took a peak at Rhea and a range of emotions played on their faces, but none of them verbalized the questions that played on their faces.
To her surprise, Jasper was the one who sat in between her and Avida. He smiled softly at Rhea when he saw her.
After everyone was seated, a hush descended over the silence that was filled only by the crackle of the fire in the fireplace. There was an empty chair to Tom's right and Rhea figured the chair belonged to Astrea since she was the only one who wasn't present for the meeting. Tom drummed his fingers against the surface of the table.
"I know all of you are wondering what Rhea Hel is doing at our table," Tom spoke, dragging his gaze over the faces of his followers. "Rhea has decided to join our cause. She is a Knight."
Rhea didn't move as everyone turned to look at her. There were a wide range of reactions from everyone apart from Tom, Druella, and Avida. Lupe rolled his eyes; Orpheus and Ramsey smirked; Cassius raised a brow in surprise; Abraxas was apathetic of the entire situation; and Jasper, to Rhea's surprise, let out a sad sigh.
"Now, onto more important matters — we had a meeting earlier today where we discussed the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. I called you back here today because the Miller girl is only the first of many muggleborns who have plagued our school for too long. I want each of you to provide me with more victims. Point me in the direction of the targets who would draw the most attention and then I will send the Basilisk to carry out the job."
Rhea watched as the other Knights exchanged looks with one another at Tom's orders. She narrowed her eyes when she noticed Jasper and Avida's hesitation. Orpheus reclined in his chair and twirled his wand in between his fingers. The wicked grin on his face told Rhea that he was excited to give Tom more victims. Abraxas and Lupe appeared rather indifferent towards the orders and, since they were seated closest to Tom, Rhea knew that they were probably his most loyal followers.
Ramsey's gaze flicked towards the empty chair where Astrea Ravenswood was supposed to be seated.
"Where's Ravenswood?" Ramsey asked.
Irritation flashed across Tom's expression.
"Astrea has other matters to attend to. For now, I don't want any of you to mention the opening of the Chamber of Secrets to her. If she asks questions, you will pretend not to know anything. While Astrea is a valued member of our organization, she will not know about this." Tom said. Rhea could see the questioning looks on some of the members' faces as they wondered why Astrea was being kept in the dark. Something told Rhea that Astrea would have a lot of say if she realized Tom had gone through with opening the Chamber and that Tom was trying to avoid an angry Astrea.
"I know who your next victim should be." Rhea spoke suddenly. All eyes in the room turned to her and some appeared to be surprised by her interruption. Rhea could tell that some of them weren't used to the change in how she held herself when she wasn't pretending to be someone she wasn't. There were no more kind smiles and no more warmth radiating off of her; now, there was a natural frostiness in her voice when she spoke and her green eyes were dark and cold. "There's a muggleborn Hufflepuff named Clara Bishop. She recently wrote an article for the newspaper, the Daily Prophet, about the creation of an organization or task force at the Ministry that is solely dedicated to the protection of muggleborns from those who wish to bring them harm. People are saying that she plans to take these suggestions to our Minister and that, with the amount of signatures she has gathered, she might even be able to make it happen."
There was a murmur in the room when she spoke as Tom's followers listened to what she had to say. Rhea turned to Tom and saw the thoughtful look on his face. His brows were pulled together and he looked as if he were debating something.
"How do you know about this article?" Abraxas asked Rhea. Cassius nodded his head in agreement at Abraxas's question and the corner of Rhea's lips turned up.
She had gotten the information from Persephone since her father was a writer at the Prophet. The article wasn't supposed to come out for another week, so Rhea knew no one would suspect the attacks were targeted.
"I heard about it from a friend." Rhea said. She turned back to Tom. "If you target her, someone could pretend to be her and write to the Prophet telling them not to publish the article at all. By the time she recovers from an attack of this nature, she'll be too scared to even wonder what happened with the article at all."
Tom raised a brow at Rhea's words and he continued to drum his fingers against the table.
After a few long stretches of silence, he spoke, "Jasper, you'll be the one to sneak into Bishop's room to steal the article after the attack has taken place. I expect each of you to follow Rhea's lead and give me the names of future victims."
Rhea smirked when she saw Abraxas bristle at Tom's words. Orpheus sneered at her and Rhea fell back into the cushion of her seat, satisfied.
Tom dismissed them and, after everyone filed out of the room, handed her the map that would lead her to the Hel's Codex. She took a quick peek at the parchment and looked at the name and address Tom had written on it.
Gisela Baudelaire
Place Cachée
Paris, France
"Baudelaire . . ." The last name sounded familiar to Rhea. She made a mental note to ask Druella about it since Druella's family came from France too.
Over the next few days, the attacks on mostly muggle-born students started happening more and more frequently, with Clara Bishop being the first of Tom's victims after Louisa. The whole school was in a panic over what to do and whenever Rhea caught sight of Headmaster Dippet he was always pacing around frantically or going red in the face when groups of students would run up to him and ask him questions.
New rules had been implemented throughout the school too. They weren't allowed to leave their dorms after six p.m. and there were professors patrolling every corridor.
On the morning of the twelfth of June, Rhea was shaken awake by Druella.
Davina looked at her with tears streaked down her face. Her hair was still in rollers letting Rhea know the girl had just rolled out of bed. Davina's face was pale and grim and it was an expression that Rhea was familiar with. She knew what was about to come next.
"You need to come downstairs, Rhea. There's been a murder!"