𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀
— something for something
RHEA NOTICED THE LOOKS OF CONCERN PERSEPHONE WAS GIVING DRUELLA WHEN SHE CAME TO BREAKFAST LOOKING PALER THAN NORMAL. Rhea mirrored Persephone's expression as Druella sat down across from her, slightly swaying as she did so.
"Are you all right, Druella?" Persephone asked. There was a crease between her eyebrows when they drew together. Apart from herself, Rhea believed Persephone was the most intelligent of the girls. Rhea knew Persephone didn't particularly like Davina all that much but she, like the rest of the girls, tolerated her. Davina was the Slytherin prefect and nobody wanted to get on her bad side.
"I'm fine. I feel a bit sick, is all." Druella waved them off.
Rhea raised her cup to her mouth and took a sip of her orange juice. When Druella had been sleeping, Rhea dropped a few droplets of poison into her mouth. That was enough at the time, and she planned to do it again for the next few nights. It would make Druella sick enough, but the controlled doses wouldn't kill her.
The poison was her father's own creation. It was his preferred method of torture and he had used it on his enemies before. No one outside of the Hel family knew how to make it and they were the only ones that could make the antidote. Rhea was confident no one would be able to trace it back to her and that was all that mattered.
"Perhaps you should lie down." Rhea said. Her tone expressed concern and there was a frown lining her face when she looked at Druella. Seraphina and Walburga nodded their heads in agreement. "You'd only be missing History of Magic, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures today. I could give you my notes —"
"She'll be fine." Davina snapped at Rhea.
Rhea's jaw clenched. She had always thought Davina was too arrogant for her own good. The Selwyn's weren't the most powerful or influential wizarding family and Davina knew it so she was always grasping for power wherever she could get it. And they all let her. Rhea wondered why neither Druella or Walburga stood up to Davina when she spoke to them the way she did, but they were too scared to.
Rhea could feel eyes boring into the side of her skull when she resumed eating her breakfast. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw Tom Riddle staring at her while Ramsey Lestrange spoke to him. She allowed for a small smile to grace her face and he turned away from her.
But, she felt the familiar knocking sensation on her head. He loved showing off his skills, she realized, but she was better. She had been practicing Occlumency and Legilimency at home before she even attended Hogwarts. It was a staple in the Hel house and her father knew those skills would come in handy. Even Pluto had never been as good as Rhea was. He couldn't create false memories like she could or hide his thoughts from skilled Legilimens.
She created another false memory to show Tom. His Legilimency was strong, but she was better. Tom wasn't powerful enough to know the difference between a real memory or a fake one, but she had a feeling that he could be. She was starting to recognize his potential, though she wasn't sure if that was necessarily a good thing.
The memory she showed him this time was different. It was one she knew would keep him from poking around in her mind for the time being. She placed images of Silas in her head and she could feel him pull away the second she showed him a vision of the two kissing. If she wasn't supposed to be pretending that she couldn't tell he was searching around in her head, she would've laughed at his reaction. She glanced over at him again and saw his cold stare was trained on the Parkinson boy who was speaking to Juniper Prewett and Osiris Shafiq.
"How's your brother doing, Druella?" Walburga said, causing Rhea's attention to be pulled back to the girls sitting around her. Jasper Rosier, Druella's older brother, had ended up in the infirmary under mysterious circumstances, his face puffed up and disfigured. According to Druella, Madam Wormwood had a hard time healing him and Jasper had given Headmaster Dippet the name of a sixth year Gryffindor who had supposedly "attacked him".
Rhea didn't believe Jasper's story for one moment. At the end of fourth year, Lupe Nott had been in the infirmary with the exact same injuries and, in the third year, Ramsey Lestrange had been at the receiving end. Different Gryffindors, usually muggleborns, went down for those attacks, but Rhea had a feeling that they weren't the ones to blame.
"He's recovering quite nicely. Madam Wormwood says he should be back in classes by the end of the weak." Druella said rolling her neck. "My parents made sure Dippet expelled the boy that did it. He's lucky he got away from here before he had me to deal with it."
"Because you're so terrifying." Davina laughed. Druella stared at Davina with an annoyed expression and Rhea bit back her tongue to keep herself from instigating the situation. She wondered what would happen if she told Druella to stand up to herself against Davina. Rhea would've but she wasn't reckless and she couldn't. She had a role to play.
"I'm glad Jasper's fine, Druella," She said sweetly to diffuse the situation. Druella turned her gaze back to Rhea and smiled at her. "It's just so awful that he was just attacked like that."
"It's horrible. I was going to visit him during lunch but I won't be able to. Persephone, Seraphina, and I are going to the library to write our Potions essay. I might visit him during break instead." Druella said thoughtfully.
"I could visit him during lunch then to check up on him. I'm sure he could use the company." Rhea said. Druella brightened up at the suggestion.
"Thank you, Rhea. He'd really appreciate it." Druella said.
"You're too nice for your own good, Rhea." Davina said, clicking her tongue.
The twitch of her eye was the only thing that gave Rhea away Rhea's annoyance. Davina had a nasty habit of making snide comments towards her whenever Rhea displayed any sort of kindness to the other girls. Rhea desperately wanted to put Davina in her place but she couldn't, so she bit her tongue and kept her eyes trained on her goblet.
"One of these days that could become a real problem for you." Davina added.
Rhea's eyes flashed darkly and she brought her hand underneath the table so she could clench her fist, but she kept her face impassive.
The other girls fell silent, choosing not to speak another word and Rhea bowed her head at Davina submissively. She swore to herself that one day Davina would regret speaking to her the way that she did.
During lunch, Rhea made her way to the infirmary and found Jasper Rosier laying on the bed. His chocolate colored hair stuck to his face. Thanks to Madam Wormwood, Jasper's face was slowly reverting back to normal. His eyes were closed but Rhea knew he was awake. She took the seat in the chair beside him and glanced around the empty room. When she turned back to face him, his eyes were opened and he was staring up at her with a look of surprise.
"Rhea?" He asked groggily. "What are you doing here?"
Jasper had a soft spot for her and he thought she didn't know about it, but she was acutely aware. She knew it wasn't genuine. If he found out about who she really was, he'd go running for the hills.
"I wanted to see you to make sure you were okay." She said placing her hand over his swollen one. He looked down at the contact before turning back up to her with a hopeful smile on his face. She took a deep breath to prepare herself. It wasn't as though she had come to visit Jasper out of the kindness of her heart. Rhea never did anything unless she had a reason. "Jasper, may I ask you a question . . .?"
"You can ask me anything, Rhea." Jasper said. There was an eagerness in his tone that made her want to gag.
"Well . . ." She said slowly and timidly. ". . . your friend, Tom Riddle, has started tutoring me in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts lately. I hate to bother you by asking this, especially considering the state you're in, but Druella told me some things about him that . . . well, concerned me. It made me wonder, is Tom . . . one of us?"
She knew Jasper would understand what she was implying: Was Tom pureblood?
"Oh . . ." Jasper said before masking his apparent disappointment. "Tom is . . . well, I'm not exactly sure who his family is, but you don't have to worry about him. If he's taking his time to tutor you then it's a good thing. Tom doesn't spend his time with just anyone."
Rhea made a show of having her shoulders relax while she analyzed Jasper's every word. She could smell a lie from a mile away and there was something about Tom's family that Jasper was hiding from her. She noticed the way he spoke about Tom too, like he was someone important.
Rhea didn't want to have to resort to the next step in her plan, but since Jasper felt the need to lie to her, she had to. She couldn't stand liars.
Rhea smiled kindly at him and said, "Thank you, Jasper. That makes me feel a lot better. Here, have some water."
She handed him the glass from his bedside. As she did so, she slid the small vial of Veritaserum that was hidden up her sleeve and poured some in. Jasper didn't notice and drank large gulps of the liquid while she patiently waited.
If there was one thing Rhea loved, it was a good mystery and the gratification she got from solving things herself. She'd only ask Jasper one question before wiping his memory clean so he didn't remember this part of their conversation.
"Jasper, I have one more question." She said. She leaned forward close to Jasper. "What is Tom's full name?"
Rhea marched through the library with purpose. Silas rushed to catch up with her, nearly stumbling over his feet as he hurried to meet up with her. He had been calling her name ever since she entered the corridor outside of the library but she was pretending she couldn't hear him. Rhea took a sharp turn down one of the sections until she found the book she was looking for, flipping through it hurriedly.
"Rhea, didn't you hear me calling your name?" Silas asked exasperatedly when he caught up to her.
"No, sorry." Rhea mumbled.
She flipped through the pages again before landing on a name. Marvolo Gaunt. The Gaunts were members of the Sacred Twenty-Nine, as well as descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself. Rhea resisted the urge to jump up and down in excitement as she snapped the book shut. Tom Marvolo Riddle was a descendant of Slytherin, if her suspicions were correct (and they usually were), and she had something he wanted.
Rhea turned to Silas and planted a passionate kiss on his lips, nearly knocking him off guard. She pulled away and he blinked at her in shock.
"W-what was that for?" Silas stumbled, looking dazed and confused.
"I realized something. Now, I have to go but I'll find you later. I promise." Rhea said. She could tell Silas was beginning to protest so she dashed away from him as fast as she could and made her way to the Slytherin common room.
She reached into her trunk and pulled out The Black Book. It whispered to her quietly like it normally did, begging her to open it and take a peak, but she wouldn't. She would need it when she confronted Tom Riddle. If he truly was a descendant of Slytherin, he could be of great use to her if she played her cards right. She had something he wanted, and he was what she had been searching for.
Tom Riddle was sitting out by the lake, wondering how much longer he could put up with tutoring Rhea. They'd only had one session thus far and had made no plans for a second one but that one session was already more tiring than he had wanted it to be. He wasn't a patient man and he was tired of spending time with Ms. Goody Two Shoes.
Typically, he could sit out by the lake for hours and think underneath the big tree. He didn't care that it was cold or that everyone had retreated back inside the castle for warmth, but it was another part about the castle that he loved. Hogwarts was the only place that had ever felt like home for Tom and sometimes he thought it was the only place that ever would.
Tom saw a figure moving towards him out of the corner of his eye. He slowly turned his head and saw Rhea Hel striding to him with a book by her side.
He let out a long sigh before letting a pleasant look befall his face. He stood to greet her.
"Hello, Rhe —" Rhea held her hand up and cut him off before he could speak any further. He looked at her, taken aback and angered by her actions. He didn't like being cut off and she certainly didn't have any authority to do so. Dark thoughts floated around in his head.
Rhea enjoyed the look that broke through Tom's face. For the first time, his mask slipped and she was getting a peak at the real Tom Riddle.
"I believe this is what you want." She said calmly, holding the book up to him.
Tom looked at the book and he had to hide his momentary shock. It was The Black Book, he knew it the moment he saw it. In a weird way, it sounded as though it was speaking to him. His head snapped back to Rhea and he wondered how she realized the book was what he wanted.
Druella, he thought to himself, she must've told.
"I don't know what you mean." He spoke slowly through gritted teeth. He loathed the way her lips curled up into a smile unlike one he'd ever seen on her face before. This one was tainted with a dark kind of mischief unlike her usual pleasant ones. He recoiled at the sight of her.
"No need to lie, Riddle." She said clicking her tongue. She had him right where she wanted him — caught off guard with no idea what to do or what was going to happen next. "You want my mother's book, and I'll give it to you."
He narrowed his eyes. He could tell conditions were coming and he didn't do conditions. He took whatever he pleased and he would get the book, even if he had to get around her to do so. Tom Riddle was not afraid of little Rhea Hel.
"If, and only if, you do something for me." Rhea added.
"No." Tom said immediately.
"You don't even know what I was going to say." She said with a frown. He was too arrogant; a narcissist who didn't know how to listen to anyone but himself. He needed to wise up and listen to her.
"I don't care. I don't take orders from you. Especially not from you." Tom said.
He moved to walk past her and he only got a few feet before he hit an invisible wall. He let out a long, deep breath and tried to move again but hit the same force. Tom turned around and looked at Rhea, accusatorily, and he fumed at the amusement that colored her expression.
"If you know what's best for you, you wouldn't do that."
He noticed that her wand wasn't out and a part of him grew even more angry at her. How did Rhea Hel know wandless and wordless magic? He'd only recently perfected wandless and it was still harder for him to do wordless magic. To see her doing it so effortlessly, so nonchalantly, irritated him to no end.
Then, she laughed.
Tom's feet lifted off the ground and he was sent flying over to the edge of the lake. His wand flew from his pocket and into her hands. The force pushed him to his knees and his head submerged underwater. Rhea enjoyed watching the way he squirmed as he struggled to breathe.
He couldn't speak, so he couldn't cast any spells at her; he couldn't see her, so he couldn't direct any wordless attempts at her either; and they were the only two people around, so no one would come rushing to his aid.
He was powerless at her hands and that made him want to kill her where he stood. Then, for the first time in a long time, possibly ever, fear coursed through him. Black dots danced across his vision and he knew what this meant — he was dying. He was dying at the hands of some weak little girl. He'd be damned if he allowed Rhea Hel to kill him like this. He'd be damned if he was going to die on his knees.
Then, she pulled him out of the water and he landed on his back, coughing up the water that got in his mouth. She stood over him, staring at him with that same twisted grin while she waved his wand at him.
"You really shouldn't throw those threats around so carelessly." Rhea said. "Now, you will listen to me or I'll do worse."
Her voice was serious, all traces of amusement gone from her cold face. She spoke to him the same way he spoke to his followers and it made him see red.
Rhea enjoyed looking at the bloodthirsty look in his dark eyes. It reminded her that Tom Riddle, like herself, was putting on a show for the rest of the world and it further cemented her decision to give him the book.
Invisible ropes tightened around him so that he couldn't move. He laid on the ground, helplessly, and she twirled his wand in between her slender fingers.
"This book holds the darkest spells, stories, artifacts, and much more known to our kind. You'll never find another book like it, not even Secrets of the Darkest Arts is this dark. This is a book you want if you wish to dabble in Dark Magic. I'll happily loan it you if you, Tom Marvolo Riddle, descendant of Salazar Slytherin —" Tom stared up at her with an expression of disbelief. How did she know about his lineage? He'd only found out at the end of fourth year. It must've been one of his followers, he decided, and he'd torture it out of them if he had to. "— find and open the Chamber of Secrets."
"The what?" He asked tersely.
She dropped the book onto his chest.
"It's all in there. I've always wondered about Salazar's secret chamber and I'm giving you all the information to access it because I want to find out if it's real. Originally I had planned to ask your little friend, Ravenswood, but I knew she'd refuse. Then, you came along and I'm sure you'd make excellent use of the Chamber." Rhea said.
"I'm not doing anything for you." Tom spat at her. "I'm going to kill you."
Rhea laughed once more.
"Good luck with that. I've got more dark magic in my pinky than you could even imagine. You wouldn't even be able to get one spell in before I had you fearing for your life, like I did a few moments ago." She taunted at him, tilting her head slightly as she looked down at him. "You have no idea what I'm capable of, Riddle."
She twirled his wand around in her hand as he seethed.
"Read about it, think on it. I have a feeling you'll want to open the chamber more than I do when you're done." Rhea threw his wand down a few feet away from him and walked off, humming a tune as she did so. When she was far enough away and entering the crowd of people that had come pouring out of a classroom, she lifted her spell off Tom.
He snapped up, cursing when she disappeared from sight.
In that moment, shaking with rage, Tom vowed that he would kill Rhea Hel if it was the last thing he did.
*Sacred Twenty-Nine: The twenty-nineth family is the Krane family.