CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
— a sleeping dragon is never to be tickled
THE COOL BREEZE BRUSHED AGAINST RHEA'S SKIN AS SHE SAT ON THE GROUNDS ADJACENT TO THE CASTLE, HER MOTHER'S BOOK OPEN ON THE GROUND IN FRONT OF HER. She held her hands in her lap as her eyes darted around behind closed eyelids. Rhea could hear the sound of nature all around her, amplified so intensely that she could feel blood starting to run from her ear and along the side of her neck. She didn't move and she tried not to think about how long it was going to take her to scrub blood from her white blouse (a habit she seemed to be doing a lot of ever since she came to stay with her father) as she refocused her attention away from the pain in her ears to the hundreds of thousands of voices that she could hear in her head. Muggles and witches and creatures alike chattered in her head, giving Rhea the worst headache she had ever felt in her life as she searched for the only thing that mattered to her.
Dragons were always the easiest beasts for Rhea to find whenever she performed this spell. Dragons and dark creatures alike would speak to her, calling out to her. Rhea guessed her family's connection to dark magic made it easier for them to communicate, but Pluto tried to perform the spell once and said he couldn't understand what they were saying. Over the years Rhea had learned to expand her reach of the spell past the lands of Wiltshire so that she could hear what kinds of magical creatures were roaming about in towns and villages in different parts of the country. The force of having so many voices in Rhea's head would take its toll eventually, but Rhea always knew to pull away before things become too bad. Except, she couldn't find Phytios. Her dragon was either too far out of range or . . .
Rhea felt blood run from her nose as she grimaced at the searing pain that shot through her head, yet she pushed through, desperate to find her dragon.
Giving up wasn't an option. Someone had taken something that belonged to her and she would not rest until she got it back.
But, Rhea could feel her magic crying out for her to stop and she would need to save her power for when she found Phytios. Rhea opened her eyes, stopping the spell and silencing everything at once. Her eyes widened while her ears rang for a moment, her surprised gaze landing on the pale face of Gellert Grindelwald as he stared at her.
"Did you find your dragon?" Grindelwald asked, although his tone made Rhea believe he knew the answer to her question before she answered. Rhea stared at the dark wizard for a moment, noting the calm expression on his face. She wondered how he had been able to sneak up on her without her noticing.
"No," Rhea said, wiping the blood from her face with a handkerchief before her gaze dropped to her mother's book, filled with anger and frustration. Even though Rhea was no longer looking at him, she could still feel Grindelwald's gaze on her. "I will try again soon."
"Yes, you should." Grindelwald said. He turned his back to Rhea and blew away like smoke in the wind, flying through the air in the form of a black cloud.
Rhea frowned. When she had come to Austria, she expected Grindelwald to be much more involved in her training than he was, but she supposed the dark wizard had more important things to worry about. Still, he had yet to ask her how she had managed to bring a Thestral back to life or to demonstrate the spell to him at all. Every time she asked her father or Vinda about it, they would just say that Grindelwald was waiting for when the time was right to see what she could really do. Rhea wasn't exactly sure what that was supposed to mean.
After a few more unsuccessful attempts at trying to locate Phytios and a blouse that was more red than white, Rhea found herself back in her room at the castle, rummaging through her closet when her owl, Mercury, came soaring through the window with a letter between his beak. Rhea hurriedly threw her shirt on and fed her bird before looking at the unopened piece of parchment, relieved her bird had made it past the guards around the castle.
"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.
Rhea woke to the sound of crashing and when she opened her eyes, she saw a hooded and masked figure standing over her bed with its wand pointed at her. Rhea tried to close her fist around her wand only to realize her hand was empty before she reached her hand up and hit the figure in the face with the palm of her hand. They cried out in pain as Rhea shot up, her hand outstretched as she wordlessly and wandlessly emitted a Shield Charm from her hand. The culprit flew backwards, stunned by her quick reaction as Rhea searched for her wand. When she realized there was no hope in finding it, Rhea ran towards the door.
As she placed her hand on the doorknob, a rope shot from the tip of the hooded man's wand and wrapped itself around Rhea's throat, squeezing tightly before it yanked back and pulled her harshly to the floor. Rhea clawed at her throat as the rope tightened around her neck and she stared up with wide eyes as she watched more hooded figures encircle around her as black spots began to appear in Rhea's vision.
She struggled to breathe, trying to focus long enough to get fire to rush to her hands but nothing came except whiffs of smoke. Rhea's eyes began to feel heavy and every muscle in her body screamed for her to stop fighting, but Rhea refused to die like this, clawing at her neck for air.
No, the voice in her head screamed with rage, I will not go.
Rhea closed her eyes and felt something deep within her come to life.
She could hardly remember what happened when she came back to her senses, the ropes loose around her neck as she stood over three lifeless bodies with red blood pooling at her feet. There was a wand hanging limp in her hand as she stared down at the sets of unseeing, terrified eyes at her feet. Rhea heard a whimpering and crying sound coming from the corner of her room and when she turned her head to face the final masked person who had come to try to kill her, Rhea managed to catch a glimpse of her reflection.
Her golden hair was drenched with blood that she didn't think was hers and it seeped through her clothes and onto her skin. A pale, tired face stared back at her with deep, dark circles around the green of her eyes. She looked like half a person and she could feel her dark magic taking over and creating a mind of its own. Rhea hadn't lost control of her magic like this since her mother stopped locking her in the cellar, but she hated what happened when she did.
"What did you do with my dragon?" Rhea asked calmly, her voice sounding not at all like her own as she stepped towards the masked person. They curled further into a ball, pointing their shaky wand hand at Rhea. She had recognized the cloaks and the mask when she first saw them. These were the people who had taken her dragon. "Do not make me ask again."
Their wand crumbled to dust in their hand as Rhea bent down in front of them, her eyes changing until they were nothing but a bottomless pit of black. Even she had never seen her magic react like this before as she took the face of the person into her two hands while they sobbed.
"H-h-he m-made u-us, I s-swear it!" They cried out. "It was j-just a t-test! He's right here, he's been right here the w-whole time! Please, please don't kill me. I don't want to die. Please. I don't want to die!"
"Thank you." Rhea said with a kind smile before she slowly began to drain the life force from the person with her bare hands. She could feel their magic seeping into her, giving her more power and life before she let go and they dropped to the ground, nothing more than a pile of bones and dust while Rhea rose. She dug through their pockets and found her wand, twirling it between her fingers.
She opened her bedroom door and calmly walked throughout the castle, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints as she made her way to the dungeons. Rhea passed by other acolytes as she descended, each of them stepping out of her way to allow her to pass as they took in the sight of her. When Rhea reached the door to the dungeons, her father and Grindelwald stood in front of the door.
"This is your final test, Rhea. If you pass then you will be one of us and I will teach you everything I know. You will become an even better wizard than your father or myself." Grindelwald said and Rhea could see the pride in her father's eyes as he looked at her, soaked head to toe in the blood of four of his followers. "With you by our side, we will become unstoppable."
Rhea stared at the door to the dungeon.
"Rhea, you know I never agreed with your mother locking you away in that cellar. It's filled with dark magic that has been festering and growing down there for centuries, but it gave you a gift. You can access types of dark and ancient magic that no one in our family has been able to since the days of Morgan le Fay. You will be the Enchantress that was prophesied." Her father said. Rhea didn't think she'd ever seen her father look so proud of her. She slid her gaze back to the door of the dungeon, noticing how quiet it was.
"You killed my dragon." She said, her voice so quiet that Cauius and Grindelwald could barely hear what she said. When it dawned on her father, he frowned and disappointment seeped into his features.
"So that you could bring it back to life and show Grindelwald and the other acolytes your power. How many other witches and wizards can bring animals back from the dead, Rhea? You have the power of necromancy —"
"You gave me a dragon, let me care for it, so that you could kill it. You let them kill my dragon." Rhea repeated calmly, continuing to stare at her father. She could see him growing angry while Grindelwald watched her curiously.
"Rhea," Her father's tone was one of warning. "You're going to bring it back to life. Don't make a bigger deal out of this than there needs to be and do as you're told."
An angry sneer formed on Rhea's face.
"Do as I'm told," She repeated. Her eyes and face began to darken as she felt her magic rush to the tip of her fingers. "I always do as I'm told, but you killed my dragon. You will pay."
Cauius's brow raised in shock when Rhea let out a cry and an explosion filled the room, shaking the castle and sending Grindelwald and Cauius flying. Debris reigned down from the sky all around them as Rhea made her way down to the dungeons, killing anything that stood in her way with a simple wave of her hand. She found Phytios's body guarded by two of Grindelwald's followers. They ran at her, armed with spells, but Rhea's hand moved at lightning speed and she hit them with two Killing Curses as she fell to her knees by Phytios' body.
Tears welled in Rhea's eyes as she began to weep over the body of her lifeless dragon, hearing shouts from the other wizards upstairs as they prepared themselves to fight her. Rhea wrapped her arms around Phytios, crying softly, and Disapparated to the only place she could think of where her father wouldn't find her.
Rhea landed outside of Krane Manor with a crack, startling Selene who happened to be sitting by the lake surrounding the Manor as the girl let out a yelp, surprised to see her future sister-in-law with tears streaming down her face and a dead dragon in her arms.