Eliza didn’t even register landing in the foyer of Malfoy manor. The only thing she could think about was Tom. Tom’s barely there breathing, Tom’s blood on her hands, Tom dying beneath her. Everything else had faded away, she felt like she was underwater.
Even through the portkey travel she hadn’t moved her hands from him. Tom looked paler – how long had he been bleeding for now? How much blood had he lost? How much longer did he have?
‘Narcissa’ someone screamed and she belatedly realised it was her – her throat felt torn over the shout that ripped through it.
“Narcissa” she screamed again, her mind slowly coming back into focus and not a moment too soon. Both Narcissa and Lucius barrelled down the staircase, panic stricken.
“You have to heal him” Eliza pleaded “you have to heal him please, please”
Because Narcissa was the only healer she knew, the only family she had who she could trust with this, trust with him.
A moment passed and it felt like eternity. Tom’s heartbeat stuttered beneath her bloodied palms.
“Lucius get the blood replenishing potions and my healing kit immediately. Bring them to the guest bedroom” Narcissa demanded and strode forwards towards Eliza and Tom who were staining the white marble floors red.
“Eliza I’m going to have to lift Mr Gaunt up now, you’ll have to let him go. Okay?” Narcissa ordered her tone comforting but unyielding. Eliza wanted to argue but instead she reluctantly moved her hands away from Tom.
Narcissa swooped down and she must have cast a lightening charm because she scooped Tom up into her arms far too easy for it to be natural. Eliza trotted behind her in a daze, following her through the twisting corridors of Malfoy Manor until they entered the guest bedroom.
Narcissa vanished Tom’s dirty and torn shirt the second she lay him flat down on the bed. The puncture wound looked even more gruesome against Tom’s pale alabaster skin.
Eliza watched on as Narcissa cleaned the wound and staunched the bleeding. She watched as Lucius stumbled in ladened with potions and a heavy medic bag that Narcissa immediately dug through with well-practiced ease. She watched as Narcissa slowly and methodically healed him, patient and unwavering.
Eliza watched as Narcissa slowly knitted Tom back together, watched as she pulled him away from the brink of death.
“He will be fine” Narcissa said eventually breaking the stifling tense silence that had settled over the room while she worked. Eliza nearly went boneless with relief.
“Now Eliza” Narcissa said coming to sit across from her, pulling one of her bloodied hands into her own “Tell us what happened”
It was not a question, it was a demand and for the first time in a long time Eliza found herself caught between the ardent need to tell the truth and the unwavering conviction that she had to lie.
“We can help you if you tell us Eliza” Lucius said from beside Narcissa, his sleeves were rolled up and the dark mark was stark against his skin, blacker than the night and writhing grotesquely. She thought they had both forgotten she could see it in the chaos.
They deserved the truth.
But Eliza didn’t have time to tell them the truth.
“I have to go” she said instead – not a lie, not quite truth “I have to – to sort everything out. We’ve been gone for too long”
“Eliza just tell us what happened” came Narcissa’s soothing voice and Eliza felt something snap inside her
“I can’t” Eliza shouted brushing a bloodied hand over her matted hair.
“I need to fix this – I just- need to fix this” she said over their soft pleas.
“Eliza. Have we not proven that we can help you?” she asked and Eliza turned to look at Tom. He looked like he was sleeping. The image of him almost dead was still fresh in her mind.
“You’re exhausted, you’re in shock and you can barely move. You will let us help”
And Eliza wanted them to. She wanted to give in so badly. But she knew it wouldn’t end well. A well-known death eater family involved in any way during the attack they planned to stage? There would only be viscous back lash. She said as much to them.
“If you get involved you become incriminated and I won’t do that to you. I won’t”
Suddenly, on the bed Tom twitches, wand hand moving as though he’s still in a fight. He probably thought he was. Tom’s mind perceived a different battlefront every day.
“I can’t tell you everything” Eliza said grimacing “I don’t have the time to tell you everything and frankly there are some things I simply can’t tell you – I’m sure you understand”
Narcissa and Lucius nod, they look sick with worry and Eliza has never felt so guilty in her life.
“The official story for tonight is that Tom and I grabbed the cup at the same time – and it was a good job that we did. The cup was a portkey and it dropped us in a graveyard in the middle of nowhere where Peter Pettigrew was waiting for us. He rigged the whole thing to get revenge on me, and Tom managed to save my life
“The only casualty there was ever meant to be was Pettigrew – Tom was never supposed to get hurt. I’ll say that once Pettigrew was taken care of I summoned a patronus and asked for Narcissa’s help, everyone knows how close we are, it’s understandable you would come back with me” Eliza said rapidly, plan after plan falling through her mind and spilling from her lips. They hadn’t prepared for this but Eliza was good at making plans up on the spot – many of her schemes fell through at the last minute anyway.
“And unofficially?” Lucius asked looking just as worried as Narcissa. Eliza sighed pensively and cast a tempus. They had been in the cemetery for only 30 minutes even if it had felt like a lifetime. But still they were running out of time. Eliza would have to make it back to Hogwarts sooner rather than later.
“Either get into contact with Severus or Moody at Hogwarts, I promise you he’s not what he seems. The pair of them will be able to explain everything to you – tell them that the plan went wrong and that you have my permission to know everything” Eliza ordered and stood up, blinking for a few seconds as her vision blacked out.
“Eliza?” Narcissa asked worriedly.
“Magical exhaustion” Eliza said waving off the Malfoy matriarch’s worry “I’ll pass out later, we have a job to do”
That didn’t seem to ease Narcissa’ concerns but she stood up anyway coming to stand by Eliza’s side.
“Do you know where Little Hangleton is?” Eliza asked and Narcissa nodded “you’ll need to apparate us there so the cup can take us back onto Hogwarts’ grounds. Tom-
Eliza paused looking back at him, he was breathing steadily now at least but she was still worried out of her mind.
“Tom can stay here”
Narcissa nodded and with a crack they apparated away,
~
Narcissa had dropped them rather close to the cemetery and soon they were walking in through the gates. It looked like a warzone and Narcissa paled as she took in the sight.
“The bodies” she said lowly as if she was scared of what the answer could be “Were they there before or?”
“No” Eliza said and her mind was still running to catch up with her tongue so she barely even noticed when she said “I resurrected them”
Narcissa blanched beside her and Eliza stumbled to a halt when the woman pulled her in for a hug. Eliza wanted more than anything to simply melt into it. To let this entire horrific night fade away. Instead she reluctantly pulled away and discreetly wiped at her eyes.
“Come on, we should hurry”
The cup was easy to locate, it shined faintly against the dark melancholic cemetery. Pettigrew was harder to find. It’s only when Eliza stared out at the bodies did she realise the mistake she had made.
“Oh” she uttered softly and Narcissa became even paler by her side.
“Tom did tell me to be careful with what spell I used”
She had of course ignored him when she had Pettigrew quivering in front of her. But now staring at the rotting skeleton that had once been Pettigrew she understood why Tom had warned her. There wasn’t much of a body left to identify him by.
“What curse was used?” Narcissa asked, voice calm and controlled.
“Flesh eating curse” Eliza responded not moving her eyes away from Pettigrew’s skeleton.
“That’s illegal”
“An incendio then. A rather over-powered incendio” Eliza suggested promptly and they both turn to consider Pettigrew’s remains. With a long exasperated sigh Narcissa started moving forward towards the cup.
“That would work”
“Besides there’s always pensieve memories” Eliza commented absently and started levitating the corpses back into the graves. If anyone came here to investigate it would do them no good to find evidence of accidental necromancy.
Necromancy.
It hadn’t fully sank in yet, just what she had achieved tonight. No one had heard of a necromancer in years. Of course Tom had tried – the reason why inferi always looked so ghastly and mechanical was because they were actually a bastardisation of necromancy. One had to be born a necromancer to actually be able to access the powers and there hadn’t been any in centuries. Or if there had been they had kept themselves quiet. Just like seers or metamorphogi, most bloodline gifts were hidden and revered. The last know necromancers had actually been the Peverell’s.
She would have to do some research when things calmed down – or maybe she’d just ask Draco. That boy was a fountain of knowledge when it came to genealogy.
Suddenly – she heard a vicious hissing coming from her left.
“Little speaker” Nagini hissed panicked, coming to a stop at Eliza’s feet “where is master? Is he okay? Where did you go?”
She forgot Nagini. Of course she forgot about Nagini.
Eliza knelt down so she was facing her and hissed soothingly at the riled snake.
“I took Tom away so he could get help. He is resting now and should be fine” Eliza hissed and Nagini seemed to calm at her words. The snake seemed to consider something for a few moments before she slowly began to climb up Eliza’s arm.
“What are you doing Nagini?” Eliza asked exasperatedly.
“Master told me to guard you” Nagini replied promptly, coiling around Eliza’s neck “plus little speaker is warm”
Rolling her eyes Eliza pushed herself up from the floor, adjusting Nagini so she could move freely.
“You will have to stay hidden until I can drop you off in my room okay?” Eliza ordered and walked over to Narcissa who was looking more confused by the second.
“I think little speaker should give me a fat juicy rabbit for being so well behaved”
“Whatever you want Nagini” Eliza replied with no small amount of fondness as the snake settled down over her shoulders.
“Are you ready to return to Hogwarts Eliza?” Narcissa asked. Eliza didn’t know how she managed to look so unruffled. Even with everything that Eliza had thrown at her Narcissa didn’t have one golden strand of hair out of place. Eliza was willing to bet that the only reason Lucius had lasted as long as he had was because he had Narcissa Black by his side.
“Do you think I should look into becoming an actor?” Eliza said out of the blue as she walked over towards the cup “I honestly think I’m about to give the performance of a life time”
Narcissa let out a tinkling laugh.
“Dear if we thought you would be contented with a normal profession we would have spared ourselves the headache and hired you ourselves”
Eliza let out a bark of laughter and then reached out towards the portkey, she and Narcissa were whisked away.
~
The second Eliza finally sat down she knew she was never moving again.
Her hands were wrapped around a giant mug of hot chocolate like it was a life line. It had whipped cream and marshmallows on top because Barty really was the best death eater Tom ever acquired and when Eliza took a sip of it, it tasted like heaven.
Hot chocolate was not for serious conversations.
Eliza doesn’t care anymore.
After landing in front of the crowd Eliza did in fact give the best performance of her life. As Narcissa got the crowd under control and the other teacher’s shepherded the students away Eliza clung onto Narcissa desperately, panicked and worried and crying.
Dumbledore was the first to approach them. Then the other head teachers, McGonagall, Snape and Barty all coming to stand in front of them.
“My dear girl” Dumbledore said solemnly “what happened?”
Eliza had taken in a deep stuttering breath and wiped at her eyes in a convincing move of distress.
“The cup” she began, voice still hoarse “Tom and I had reached for the cup at the same time. It was a portkey – we landed in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere” Eliza said slowly seemingly lost in her memories.
“Peter Pettigrew was waiting for us on the other side”
Sharp gasps had met her words and Eliza continued on with her story. How Pettigrew had been searching for revenge and how Tom saved her life. How he had gotten hurt in the process.
“I received a message from Eliza’s patronus” Narcissa continued on the story when Eliza was too ‘overwhelmed’ to continue “she was panicked and not thinking clearly. Mr Gaunt was severely injured – he’s back at the manor now, recovering. We thought it was best to avoid much more travel lest we jostle the wounds”
Silence rang around them, she could feel Severus and Barty staring at her but she didn’t look up from the ground where she was softly shuffling her feet.
“Do you know what Pettigrew planned my dear girl?” Dumbledore asked kindly and Eliza had to smother a grin. Instead she looked up with a stricken expression.
“He said- he said something about Voldemort, headmaster”
And there it was. The piece de résistance.
Peter Pettigrew had planned to kidnap Eliza Potter to resurrect his lord. Which meant Dumbledore would still think Eliza was firmly against Voldemort, would still think that Voldemort was some sort of incorporeal spirit. He might even re-assemble the order and prepare for war that would never truly arrive.
He would be far too busy to notice the subtle political manoeuvrings of the wizengamot by one Thomas Gaunt.
Eventually the crowd dispersed. Severus took her by the shoulder and blew Dumbledore off with an excuse about ‘looking after his snakes’ and she, Narcissa and Barty are all shepherded into Severus’ office where Lucius was already waiting for them – a glass of whiskey in his hands.
“I feel like you have a lot you need to explain” Barty said using his own voice instead of Moody’s and Eliza laughed as the other three startled.
“Get me a hot chocolate and I’ll consider it”
Which brought them to here, now.
“There are something’s I can’t tell you all because honestly they’re not up to me to decide” Eliza said figuring that was a safe place to begin and the rest of them nodded in silence.
“I’m going to ask you to not interrupt until the end and then you can ask me any questions you would like”
Eliza took a sip of her heavenly hot chocolate.
“I think the first thing Narcissa and Lucius need to know is that Thomas Gaunt isn’t actually Thomas Gaunt at all. His real name is Tom Riddle and I met him in my second year thanks to a little black diary”
Lucius choked on his whiskey.
“Of course even though Tom Riddle is his real name you will probably know him by his once preferred moniker; Lord Voldemort”
Eliza continued to tell the story of her first meeting with Tom, the resurrection rituals and all their plans and schemes for the future. She told them what had happened tonight, she even told them about her accidental necromancy, and how Tom had gotten hurt in the duel.
By the time she had finished telling them everything they are all sat around her, pale and slack-jawed even though Severus and Barty already knew half the story.
“Never a dull moment with you is there Eliza” Barty chortled, his polyjuice disguise having worn off in the middle of her story. Eliza graced him with a small smile in return and they all fell into a contemplative silence.
“Have you told Sirius about any of this?” Narcissa asked delicately and they all pretended not to notice Severus scowl behind his desk.
“And risk being disowned?” Eliza scoffed with a shake of her head. It had been nice to tell everyone all her secrets, well, most of her secrets but there was no way she could risk that with Sirius. She had no idea how it would all affect her god-father.
“I’d consider it” Narcissa replied in that vague mysterious way of hers that made Eliza want to smile and groan at the same time.
“Anyway Severus” Eliza said stifling a yawn, her exhaustion now creeping up on her “I’ll be round first thing tomorrow to pick up my time-turner. I plan to stay with Tom until he wakes up”
She’s glad when none of them try to convince her otherwise.
“But for now you need to rest Eliza, I doubt your magic can take much more strain-
“I know Aunt Cissa” Eliza said over the blonde’s words with a fond roll of her eyes “it’s past my bed time”
Barty snorted at that, Eliza couldn’t even blame him.
“That’s right Eliza” he said teasingly “It’s time for all little necromancers to go to bed”
Eliza didn’t even pause in her steps, instead she simply flipped her middle finger at him as she walked out the door.
~
Of course she didn’t get to sleep when she returned to the Slytherin Common Room as her court were all awake and worried and ready to accost her at a moment’s notice. After recounting the events of the night to them Eliza slumped boneless into the sofa, half resting on top of Theo and half resting on top of Blaise, and awaited their reactions.
“Will The Dark Lord be okay?” Theo asked at the same time that Blaise burst out with
“A necromancer? Are you fucking with us?”
Eliza burst into hysterical laughter as her court started debating the odds of Eliza being a born necromancer around her. The reasons varying from
‘well the Peverell’s did marry into the Potter Line’ to ‘maybe it’s a bonus to being a horcrux, death powers’ to ‘It’s Eliza, does she need a reason for her usual brand of bullshit?’
Eliza smiled happily as she let her court’s voices wash over her, felt their steadying presence surrounding her from all sides.
“Tom’s going to be fine Theo – he can’t die yet anyway” Eliza just managed to get out before she fell into dark oblivion, finally letting her sleep consume her.
~
The first thing she did when she woke up the next morning was take a long boiling hot shower. Well actually the first thing she did was untangle herself from her court who had decided to throw an impromptu sleep over in the common room. Then she got up to have a shower. Narcissa’s cleaning charm had left Eliza at least a bit presentable but she knew it would take more than a scourgify to get the blood out from beneath her nails.
When she came back down most of her court were still asleep. Theo and Blaise hadn’t moved from the sofa – probably because Eliza had been sitting on them. Daphne and Draco lay in a mound of blankets and pillows on the floor beside the sofa, sprawled out on top of another. It was Draco who blinked blearily as Eliza walked back down the stairs.
“Are you going to the dark lord then?” Draco asked, hair sticking up and mussed from sleep. Her court didn’t like to refer to Tom by his name, they always called him the dark lord no matter her insistence on the matter. Eliza nodded and knelt down on the floor next to Draco.
“I have to be there when he wakes up, you didn’t see him Draco it was- it was awful”
Draco nodded solemnly in response.
“I’m glad you’re okay little sister” he said sleepily, eyes already drooping. Eliza flung herself at him in a tight bone crushing hug, hoping to commune the words she couldn’t say out loud. Draco squeezed her back just as tightly, a small contented smile on his lips and Eliza knew she had succeeded.
Reluctantly parting and standing up Eliza tossed her hair over her shoulder and started heading out of the common room.
“Look after the rest of them for me will you?” she said and walked out of the door.
She had a dark lord to get to.
The next few days passed in a similar fashion. Narcissa reassured her that it was normal to spend so long unconscious after how much blood Tom had lost but Eliza worried that it might be something more. After all Tom had been casting highly dangerous ritual magic while he was injured, she could only hope everything was okay.
Eliza floo’ed into Malfoy Manor for the fifth day in a row. She stumbled out of the fire place as always and ignored Lucius’ soft snort at her never ending toil with wizarding transportation. Instead she brushed the soot off her old leather jacket and happily grabbed the mug of coffee that a house elf had already pre-prepared for her and took the first sip with a happy smile.
“Any changes?” she asked as she always did and Lucius smiled a mysterious smile that she was sure he had gotten off Narcissa.
“Why don’t you go see for yourself?”
Eliza slammed her coffee down on the table and dashed up the stairs, skidding around the corner as she reached Tom’s room. Breathing in slowly Eliza twisted the handle and ducked inside.
Tom was sat up in bed grumpily as Narcissa fussed over him. His hair was ridiculously messy and his pyjamas were rumpled and there was a scowl at his lips that suggested he would much rather curse Narcissa than allow her to plump up his pillows one more time.
But he was awake.
“Tom!” Eliza exclaimed delightedly and threw herself onto the king-sized bed because the Malfoy’s didn’t know the meaning of moderation.
Tom smiled widely when he saw Eliza and when their eyes met she felt her heart stutter. His eyes were red now. Not the red of Voldemort’s but the red of the diadem, of the locket and they swam brightly when Eliza grinned back at him, settling cross legged on the bed.
“Thank you for looking after him aunt Cissa” Eliza said cheerfully and Narcissa smiled softly, resting one dainty hand on top of her head.
“It was my pleasure dear. I’ll leave you two alone to catch up shall I?”
Narcissa walked out of the room and left silence in her wake.
“You saved my life” Tom said and his ruby red eyes make his gaze just that bit more intense – that bit more unnerving.
“Of course I did” Eliza said indignantly but paused when Tom didn’t roll his eyes as expected.
“Of course you did” he echoed, a strange look on his face.
“Are you feeling okay?” Eliza asked instead of addressing Tom’s increasingly complex emotional repression.
“Narcissa fixed me up just fine darling – I’ve mostly just been wrestling with my memories these past few days. There was a lot to sort through” Tom explained and she watched as his eyes shuttered, as he seemed to almost lose himself in resentment and doubt and despair. She hated seeing that look on his face so instead she opted to change the subject.
“Nagini’s at Hogwarts, I left her with Jormugand” Eliza said brightly and an echo of a smile passed over Tom’s face. Eliza went on to explain all that happened over the few days he had been unconscious.
“And Draco traced back the Potter family tree. Do you know we married into the Peverell line? I know many consider the Potter’s new money but Draco’s adamant that’s just because British purebloods are too nationalistic for their own good-
“The Peverell line did you say?” Tom interrupted with a look of undisguised curiosity “from the tale of the three brothers?”
“Yeah” Eliza exclaimed “we actually think my invisibility cloak is the one from the story – I’ve not heard of any other cloak lasting so long”
“Which would make you a born necromancer” Tom said with undisguised awe and Eliza shuffled nervously beneath his gaze.
“An accidental necromancer as of right now actually”
And then Tom laughed, loud and bright, and Eliza felt at peace with the world.
~
Tom and Eliza split the money from winning the triwizard tournament but everyone partied like it was solely a Hogwarts victory for days. Tom didn’t seem to mind although he did stay well away from the revelry – not that Eliza could blame him – but it meant she rarely saw him these days. It seemed Eliza was always attending to her house, or spending time with her court, or studying for her blasted end of year exams.
Time slipped away from her and before she knew it they were all packing up their trunks. Lost objects were being frantically chased after and seventh years were saying tearful goodbyes. Soon they would all be leaving, and so would Tom.
And even though at least now she has a home to return to she still couldn’t help but feel that tiny bit melancholic when the Hogwarts Express finally pulled into the station. Her court were standing further down the platform – she could vaguely see Draco swooning into Theo’s arms when Tom came to stand next to her.
“Are you staying in England then?”
“I believe so” Tom said lightly “It’s time I finally began to set all my plans into motion”
Eliza nodded keeping her gaze focused on the gleaming red steam engine in front of them. Her eyes flickered towards Tom’s when she felt his hand softly brush against her own, clasping them together and pulling her so they were facing each other.
“Which means I won’t be very far away” he added on with a soft smile.
“I’ll write to you” Eliza said back over the pounding of her heart.
“I rather expect you to visit me actually” Tom quipped and Eliza felt her lungs stop working for just a second when he grinned at her.
“I thought you’d like to be rid of me for a while” Eliza joked desperately trying to ignore how close they were standing.
“Oh darling” Tom said with a teasing smile, brushing her hair behind her ear “how can you expect me to stay away?”
He leant down and Eliza’s heart stuttered with a short sharp tender shock when he laid a kiss on her forehead, his warm lips brushing over her scar.
“Goodbye Little Star” he murmured and then span on his heels striding off the platform leaving a confused and blushing Eliza behind. She shook her head to herself and began making her way to her court who stood waiting for her, desperately trying to ignore the warm feeling that had curled around her heart.
“Tom Riddle” Eliza murmured to herself as she watched him finally disappear “I swear you’ll be the death of me”
Her fourth year at Hogwarts had ended, and with it Eliza felt that something else had only just started to begin.