Chapter 111: The little rose is blooming
Rick used the room to create a separation between Rose and him and Lily. They needed to be parents first and act like madly in love teenagers second. They quickly summoned their discarded clothes then removed the wall they had imagined. Their daughter was still silently waiting with a kind of expression which was a mix between being horrified, embarrassed, curious and a bit horny.
“Let’s start with-”
“You’re grounded.” Lily interrupted her husband.
Rose protested on the spot. “Wha- Why?!”
“Spying on your parents having sex?” Rick’s sarcastic answer didn’t help calming down the situation. If anything it made Rose a bit angry.
“I wasn’t!”
“Rose. It was obvious your father and I were about to…”
“I didn’t think you’d have sex! Snog like teenagers at best because that’s what teenagers do at Hogwarts!”
“You and Susan, never…”
Rose was blushing a storm now. “Not at Hogwarts, dad!”
Rick gave her a look she had never seen and his face before. “I’m so disappointed in you.”
“What?!”
Even Lily was shocked by her husband's words. “Rick?!”
“At her age we already fucked all over the castle. Including the other houses' common rooms and the Hogwarts Express too.”
“Holy shit!” their daughter was now completely flabbergasted.
“Language!” Lily reprimanded then turned to her husband. “That’s not the point!”
“It’s not? What is it then? Because as far as I can see, punishing her for doing less than what we did is a bit overboard.”
That quieted down Lily who had no retort to give. Rose understood then that her father’s disappointment was a way to get her out of a punishment which was undeserved in her opinion.
“My point still stands, Rose. I’m a bit disappointed that you didn’t use your discovery of the castle’s secrets to spend some special time with Susan. Just a bit though. Now why did you follow us if you knew we would, at the very least, snog?”
“There is no classroom or broom closet for you to snog here. The Astronomy classroom is there but too open and the top of the tower is packed with a few couples and friends at this time of the day. I concluded that there was a secret here that I didn’t know about. I was right. I just didn’t expect…Well… What’s this room anyway? That door that appeared and disappeared… It reminds me of the play room.”
Rick and Lily exchanged a glance and the latter sighed. “You explain?”
“Yeah, go and give Bella my love.” he replied and gave her a kiss. He didn’t miss staring at her swaying ass as she left the room.
Turning his head to Rose, he willed the room to make a comfy seat and a tea table to appear. Sitting down he invited Rose to do the same.
“This is the room I alluded to when you were searching for a place for your DADA support group. It reminds you of the play rooms back home because I based it on it. This… is the Room of Requirement. A room created by Rowena Ravenclaw so that students could find all the help they need.”
“So that's the origin of…”
“Yes. The unofficial motto of the school. To make it appear you must pass in front of the wall three times while thinking of needing the exact same thing.”
“Like ‘I need a room to have sex with my wife?’” she smirked and he smirked back.
“Yes. But it can do so much more. In his youth Albus got a room full of chamber pots. In your mother’s and I’s, we mainly used it as a laboratory.”
Thinking of the old arrangement of the room he used during his years as a student, the surroundings shifted to represent it. Potion stoves on one side, work table on another.
“That’s cool.” Rose calmly observed the changes.
“It is, right? I found that place by accident in a nightly exploration in my third year. Everything you can think about and which doesn't break the Laws of magic, it delivers. I’m sure I don’t have to point out why I didn’t tell you about it for your project.”
“No. I get it. It’s a very secret room. It wouldn’t have stayed secret with so many people interested in the group. Useful yes, but its power would have been abused.”
“Yes. Especially when someone is in the room and the door has disappeared. You can’t get in if someone is in there.”
“Even more reasons.”
“It’s also the room of the lost and found.” Once again he thought of the room where students hid their stuff or the elves put the forgotten objects. Rose was even more awed. “One thousand years of lost items. Be careful if you explore it. Some objects are quite dark and dangerous. You may lose your life or worse, your soul.”
“That bad?” The crease in her brow indicated worry.
“In your first year, Albus, your mother and I removed such an object from here.”
“What kind of madman creates that kind of object?”
“The Dark Lord kind.”
“You mean Voldemort…”
“Yes.”
A heavy silence settled between the two. How dangerous the room was sunk in. He expected Rose to ask more questions about the room but instead she asked about Voldemort.
“You never talk about him. Neither mom, or any adults really.”
“That’s because he’s not your concern.”
“He is. Or may be because of the prophecy. I don’t like being in the dark, dad. I’m not saying I want to fight him or help you and the order out when you’re going to save all those people. I mean… I do but I know it’s not my place and that I’m too young. I’d be more of a hindrance than anything but I still want to help like Mrs Weasley does. Well… not exactly like her as cooking is not my thing but as a support. Making potions, doing some research… And I need to know about him just in case. That’s why you told me in the first place, remember?”
Expressionlessly, Rick looked at his daughter for a moment. He didn’t even blink and that made Rose quite uncomfortable. She didn’t fidget however, she maintained eye contact.
“Very well.” He sighed in surrender. “What do you want to know?”
“Who he is, how did he survive that Halloween? What are you guys doing to fight him? How can I help?”
“His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle.”
“Tom Riddle? That’s the name of the tombstone Rookwood strapped me on when…”
“I know. Truthfully his name matters little. Tom Riddle was his muggle father.”
“Wait! Are you telling me, Voldemort, the bad guy who prones pureblood supremacy, is not a pureblood?” She was shocked out of her wits.
“Yes. He cares little for it. It’s just a tool for him. The dark families are old, full of money and old magics. He played on their fears, pride and prejudices to have access to all of it. He is powerful and speaks parseltongue and-”
“So they thought he was Slytherin’s heir and followed him?”
“He is Slytherin’s heir. His mother was Merope Gaunt, the last family in Magical Britain linked to Salazar. Of course he doesn’t advocate that his mother was almost a squib and his father a muggle. The smartest of his followers may have made the connections but they didn’t care. He was the one who killed Moaning Myrtle by opening the Chamber of Secrets and releasing the basilisk inside. The only reason he closed it was because the school was about to close and that would mean he would have to return to the orphanage he was raised in and which he hated.”
“His parents died?”
“His mother in childbirth. His father, he murdered him when he was sixteen for abandoning his mother and him. To be fair, Merope used amortentia on Tom Senior. She stopped doing it because she was convinced Tom would stay with her as she was seven months pregnant. I can’t really blame the man for wanting nothing to do with his abuser and rapist but I don’t absolve him either.”
“That’s… both sad and completely screwed up.”
“Yes. I won’t enter into Merope’s life in detail but I'll let you imagine how she grew up and looked like after centuries of inbreeding and blood bigotry. Next is. How did he survive Halloween?” Rick really didn’t want to speak about this.
“From the stories, Mom exploded his head with an exploding hex. But I find that hard to believe.”
“Oh, she did but with her father’s shotgun.” He was amused as he revealed the truth, leaving Roise completely bewildered.
“A shotgun? As in a muggle weapon? That’s…” Rose giggled at the stupidity of it.
“Hilarious, I know. In any case… He survived because he split his soul and put it in objects.”
“Like Sauron?”
Rick smiled when he heard the name. The Lord of the rings may not have been his daughter’s favorite book but she loved the story deeply. “Yes. But instead of putting his whole soul in an object he butchered it in seven pieces. As long as a single one of them exists he cannot die. Fortunately for us when your mother popped his head like a balloon, with no physical body he became something akin to a wraith with the ability to take possession of small animals at first then as he slowly recovered his magic, people.”
“What happened to those people? Is that what you meant by-”
“No. Their soul was safe but not their body. When he leaves them they just die. Remember your DADA professor in your first year?”
She scrunched her nose in reflection. “Professor Quirrell?”
“Yes. He was possessed by Voldemort. Albus had thought of a stupid plan. Make Voldemort believe the philosopher's stone was at Hogwarts. The elixir of life may have very well helped him recover a body and his strength. Albus and your mother confronted Quirrell and Voldemort ran away. That’s the truth behind the man’s death.”
“Wow. Lots of things happened behind our backs.”
“Of course. The world doesn’t stop spinning for children. Adults just do their very best to hide everything for good reasons.”
“What about his…What do you call it? Phylacteries? Like the liches in D&D?”
“I put a fidelius on the name and knowledge of it. If I tell you, you’re part of the secret, Rose.” he warned.
“Why? I mean why a fidelius on…” The answer came to her as she was asking the question. “So he wouldn’t make more and forget about the ones he already made. Dad, that’s brilliant.”
“Thank you. I outsmarted Albus on that one, I’m very much proud of myself.” he preened.
“Who knows?”
“Albus of course. Your mother, Bella, Marlene, Moody, your grandmother and finally Regulus. Oh ! And Bill Weasley too.”
“Bill? Why him?”
“During a dig for Gringotts in Egypt, he found one. The effects of the object were there but he didn’t know how to deal with it. Thankfully Regulus was there making his own study and helped but Bill was insistent in knowing. Furthermore he had access to goblin knowledge. Magic that could help us with the soul shards.”
“You haven't found a way to destroy them after all this time?”
“Oh, we did. Regulus is an encyclopedia on Dark Magic after all. The problem was Voldemort used precious artifacts to make soul containers. Unique and full of history.”
Rose looked at her father disbelievingly. “You’re kidding right? You have one maybe more of them and you’re-”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything as we didn’t have them all. Had we? Albus would have destroyed them on the spot. Voldemort would have probably died there and then. Unfortunately we didn’t and we spent the last fifteen years searching for them with only speculations as to how many he had made.”
“‘We didn’t?’ As in, you have all of them now?”
“We do. Recovered the last one this Summer.”
“And Voldemort is still alive because of the prophecy?” she understood that the items still existed for a reason.
“Yes and No. First, we’re not enough to deal with him and his growing army. The aurors need time to properly train their new recruits. Fudge did a number on their… well… numbers. Second, we can’t launch an attack on his base, it would be suicide. We need to draw him out into a location of our choosing that we would have booby trapped to hell and back. Third, yes, the prophecy.”
Rose took a moment to digest this but decided to satisfy her curiosity. “What are those artifacts that you’re hesitating to destroy?”
“The locket of Slytherin, Helga’s cup, Rowena’s diadem-”
“You found the lost diadem?!”
“Voldemort did. It turned out Rowena wasn’t a very good mother. Her daughter ran away with the diadem. Things happened and she is now haunting Hogwarts.”
She mentally listed all the ghosts in the castle and settled on the obvious answer. “The Grey Lady?”
“Yes. Voldemort during his years as a student, charmed her and got the location of the diadem. The idiot pushed his arrogance even further and hid it in this very room.”
“Wow. That’s…. Passive aggressive much?”
“You have no idea. The man is an emo child. His first hor-... container? His diary.”
“No way!” Rose began to laugh.
“Yes way.” he confirmed with a smile. “Anyway… those things are dangerous, Rose. They can take possession of you, twist your soul and destroy it. The magic to make them? Foul beyond belief. Not only that, Voldemort put lethal curses on it to protect them.”
“Is that… What happened to Professor Dumbledore?” She remembered the man being in agony in her living room. The presence of Regulus at the time didn’t make sense but now it did.
“We saved him, don’t worry. Keep that to yourself however, like the cloak. If Voldemort learns that Albus is weakened, he may very well strike and we’re not yet ready for a fight.” he warned her and she nodded in understanding.
“No telling anyone, go it, dad.”
“Same for the containers. Especially the containers.”
“Isn’t it protected by the fidelius?”
“Everything is possible with magic, Rose. Better be safe than sorry.” He stood up and the room turned back to the one she had entered. “Want to learn my love spell?”
“YES!” The idea of making the people she loved feel how she felt was something she eagerly wanted to know.
“Let’s meet here after curfew the days you’re not on duty. And be careful not to be seen.”
“I promise.”
They exited the room and went to the Great hall to catch the end of dinner.
The following months Rick was able to witness his daughter dragged Susan into the room for long periods of time. He had no doubt as to what they were doing there and felt proud about it. As promised he taught her his love spell. He had studied it further and tried the Eros aspect of it on Lily and Bella. The results? They were completely unhinged. Marlene had to intervene by stunning them both or they would have fucked him to death. The side effect was they were completely exhausted when they woke up.
He, with Lily and Rose, had the pleasure to meet Nicolas in class. The man had a kind and polite disposition and felt like a grandfather. Not easing and mischievous like Albus was however. He was very pleased to meet the three and a friendship instantly bloomed, born from the same love of magic and research. The classes became half history, half philosophical or theoretical debate. Not once Rose felt out of place or out of her depths. At this point Perenelle simply joined him and all classes happened with the two of them present at the same time. Sometimes Albus showed up because he was taking a break from his own research and was bored. In those cases they had dinner delivered in the room instead of going to the Great Hall.
One night in early December, Perenelle noticed something. “Albus, what is wrong? You appear to be quite down this evening.”
“Oh, nothing much. I’m just hitting a wall for a ritual. I can’t seem to find the solution to my problem.”
“What is it?” Nicolas inquired with curiosity. “Show us.”
With nothing to lose, Dumbledore lowered his tea cup on its plate. He picked a big parchment from his pocket and everyone made some place on the table. Once unfolded the ancient paper revealed a very intricate drawing of multiple magic circles. Everyone in the room studied it in silence, marveling at the design until Rose spoke up, pointing her finger at an inscription.
“I think the problem is here. You’re using an Eihwaz rune for the cycle of life and death but that doesn’t fit the fire element linked to it as fire is about rebirth of something not the birth of something new and unrelated. I think a Berkano would fit better as the rebirth is more general and mixes better with the five elements, notably fire. Furthermore Berkano is more about a transition from something old into something new which is more appropriate for the alchemical principle here and your need to transfer something into another thing. The flow of magic would be undisturbed and smooth.”
Rose raised her head from the table and the adults' expressions varied. Her father smiled proudly at her. Her mother smiled too but was thoughtful. Perenelle had a smile she couldn’t decipher, Nicolas nodded sagely and Dumbledore’s eyes were twinkling.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No. You literally put your finger on one of the things going wrong.” Nicolas praised.
Rick was more blunt “We’re just dazzled by your brilliance.” He kissed her temple lovingly.
“That wasn’t a difficult mistake to spot on. I mean the purpose of the circle is to-” she said, a bit confused then understood what the circle was about. “It’s for Voldemort. You used Eihwaz because of the death aspect, thinking…” She stopped herself and gave a second look with a new eye at the drawing. She conjured a pen and began to draw lightly on the parchment. Lily was about to say something but Rick stopped her and Albus gave her a shake of his head. ‘Let her,’ he was telling her.
One circle disappeared completely and was replaced by another, another only half of it and some had just a few runes or symbols changed. Rose drew more circles but smaller as if they were anchors around the others. When she was done, she removed her hand from the drawing and gave one final look at it.
“Here, I think that will work. You can remove his soul shards in one go and trap them into one single object.”
“How do you know about- Rick.” Lily accused her husband.
“I didn’t tell her everything. She’s involved, whether we want it or not but she asked to be in a support role. That’s what she just did.”
Albus gave the drawing a look and was mightily impressed. Runes were not his best subject but he could tell that what Rose did was very high level magical theory. He wasn’t the only one. Nicolas with centuries of experience realized how beautiful the drawing was.
“You use the magic of the soul shards to power the magic circle without outside interference. As a result the magic circle is closed and will not stop until there is no more magic. The path of the magic is not straight nor is it a loop. It’s a spiral and at each turn from our point of view, more magic is drained. This is… Magnifique.”
“Can someone explain to me who is not as well versed in runes and magic circles as you all are?” Lily inquired.
“Lily, our daughter just created the very first three dimensional magic circle while we’re all thinking in two dimensions yet.”
Lily looked at the drawing once again armed with that information and began to understand the ramifications. “Oh.” she said, then a smile spread on her face from ear to ear. “That’s my girl!”
“You should write a paper about it, Rose.” Albus suggested. “Not this circle of course. This one, it’s better if it stays unknown, but another? It could push the boundaries of alchemy even further.”
The sixth-year genius Gryffindor blushed. She didn’t think it was that worthy as it hadn’t been that difficult. She had just read the whole library on alchemy in three months and read her father’s notes.
“I don’t think it’s… fair? Dad was the one to come up with alchemical ritual circles in the first place, he should get credit for it. I just built on it.”
“Perhaps but you’re the one that made this spiral. Not me. You deserve the recognition. My mind had barely scrapped the idea of using the third dimension, Rose.” he praised her.
“I’ll do it once you do it.” she stubbornly said like a petulant child and made everyone laugh.
“Why the stubbornness?” Perenelle asked.
“Because my parents are always coming up with things. Things that I learned from and allowed me to come up with my own things. I don’t want people to think I come up with everything out of the blue. And I want them to be recognized for their work too.”
Rick and Lily exchanged a dumbfounded look.
“Honey, your father and I don’t really care for recognition. We both have enough for a whole lifetime, but if that’s what you want, then okay. We’ll start publishing our research. The non-family kind, of course.”
“I have a friend who owns the magazine ‘Quintessence’. I’m sure he will be very interested.” Nicolas said.
A bit embarrassed, Rose nodded and began to think of another 3D magic circle she could publish.