章 55: C055 - Rita & 3 Fates

The first full day at the school was a Saturday. So Penelope, Luna, and I coming downstairs just when breakfast started was almost an intimate outing. Only two professors were already sitting at the head table, and the three of us were the first students safe for one sixth year Slytherin, who looked like a ghost. It wasn't hard to figure out the guy was a big insomniac by the size of the dark circles under his eyes.

But the professors at the headtable were apparently very interested in... me.

Our new DADA professor Remus Lupin had been orange in my Eagle Vision yesterday... but today, he was white. I wonder what changed because I was honestly already preparing to just fuck him over if he did anything to antagonize me. Though, he was too empathetic and good in canon to mess with a child in my opinion.

Next full moon was next week on the 9th of September (AN: I actually googled it). I would have immediately outed him as a werewolf instead of taking any shit from the man if it came to it. Let the sheep-like people work in my favor for once. Instead, he gave me a thoughtful look after just one night of... thinking it over? Maybe another professor spoke up in my favor? Maybe he contacted Sirius to talk about me?

The other professor watching me was Professor McGonagall. I wasn't quite sure what her mission was, but she looked at me the entire time with an unsure frown. It was a new look on her that I couldn't quite place. In any case, she was still green in my vision. Like always.

Immediately after breakfast, I left Luna to explore the castle and Penelope to her prefect duties, I had an interview to get to.

-----

"We meet again, young Macnair," a sickly sweet voice cooed as I entered an office at the Daily Prophet together with my head of house. "Oh? We won't be doing it just the two of us?"

"Well, Hogwarts just started and the news were rather explosive. My head of house may have countless duties to attend to so early in the year, but he still offered to accompany me," I explained as I allowed Rita and Flitwick to look at each other.

The woman was squirming under the charms professor's steel gaze. It seemed they didn't like each other much... I didn't need to think why and whose fault it was. I supposed Flitwick was still 'just' a professor when she attended Hogwarts as a Ravenclaw herself. His head of house position only came to be during the height of the war against Voldemort, which was long after Rita graduated... apparently in the same year as Bellatrix Lestrange, my... aunt.

And, after a short back-and-forth where Flitwick stayed silent so as to not ruin Rita's mood, which would be detrimental to me, this was exactly where she started our interview.

"So, Talion. We only just learned that Rabastan Lestrange of all people is your father, which makes Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange your aunt and uncle. How does it feel to be related to so much... evil?"

Wow. She truly didn't care if I hated her. I wonder what she would do when she learned that it was me who leaked all those tidbits to her about Dumbledore and recently Lucius Malfoy. The one who threatened her by exposing her animagus status if she didn't report on it.

"Nothing has changed for me since the revelation. I am not my father. I have never met either of those three you mentioned. Since learning last year that I was related to them, I have not taken a single step in gaining benefits through the Lestrange name or seek out any relationship with them. They are in Azkaban, and from what I learned through books and the prophet at the time, they do not deserve to be still breathing."

Rita gasped in visible shock as she asked, "Patricide? You would see your father murdered?"

Ugh.

"My father and all the other Death Eaters have killed, raped, tortured, looted, and otherwise terrorized not only the magical population but the muggle population, too. These hypocritical bastards talk about blood supremacy, but they wiped out more magical blood than any other cause in recent magical history. During Voldemort's reign of terror, more noble houses ended than were added to the Wizengamot since the statute of secrecy was implemented. They threatened all of our lives by carelessly going after muggles when there was no need to even involve them in the war... I read somewhere that killing a murderer doesn't lower the number of murderers in the world... but that has to be one of the dumbest sayings I learned with the muggles. Just kill two murderers and suddenly, there's one less. Or, in the case of my father, the two murders are simply not the same. Rabastan's death would serve justice. His killings were done and justified by a twisted sense of purpose that I find apprehensible. Disgusting, really," I explained, not noticing the peculiar looks not only given by Rita but even more so by Flitwick.

"That is... weirdly insightful?" Rita eventually asked. She wasn't quite sure what to make of that yet and would have to take a long good look at her notes later.

It was. Pointing out that Death Eaters killed more purebloods, who they pretended to care about, than their enemies was my way of showing the new generation a better way. It would be a slow process.

"Thank you. I've had some time to think about the matter," I said and kept it at that, lest I say too much and reveal my full assassin teachings.

"But why not come forward once you learned that Rabastan was indeed your father? You said you knew as early as last year? Many esteemed wizards and witches felt blindsided by the reveal. Many letters have reached this office written by appalled magicals who felt like you had a moral obligation..."

Flitwick looked just about ready to blow his top, but I had long anticipated this line of questioning.

"Well, for the same reason that my last name is Macnair, not Lestrange. My late mother wasn't married to Rabastan. No, I learned that she was sold to Rabastan by my grandfather, who I suspected got off with the Imperius defense under wildly dubious circumstances..."

After explaining everything I knew about my mom the war hero who, spied on the Death Eaters where I also casually exposed Lucius' father as a founding member and financer of the Death Eater movement as something I learned from one of my mother's diaries, Rita was 'incensed on my behalf'. Not only was my mother nothing more than a blood furnace to my father, the monster. Not only did I reveal that Walden Macnair was acquitted under false circumstances... her paper had painted me as a villain! And it was, of course, totally unjustified!

But only because I played my cards right. By the way I worded the answers this entire interview, I gave Rita exactly what she wanted. Big scandals packaged in a scoop she could milk for weeks by throwing some seriously big names in the mud. Lucius already hated me anyway. So did the other Death Eaters who were free.

Painting me as the tragic orphan who had to live with the fact that the blood of a monster ran through his veins wasn't done for my benefit in Rita's mind. It would just be a bigger impact for Rita's readers.

Just like planned.

-----

I spent the rest of the day alone in the Room of Requirements. Flitwick's speech and mine hopefully stirred the rumor mill sufficiently until the new Daily Prophet with my interview tomorrow morning. Me being out in the open would just allow the prepared speeches of Draco Malfoy and possible defamation from other students to have a target. If I wasn't there to mock, Draco couldn't try and steer the conversation to something in his favor.

I had enough food prepared to last me a few weeks, so I could just eat away from prying eyes instead of sitting in the Great Hall with the rest and endure the taunting.

After reading one of the books from the Black Library for quite a while, I went outside and changed the study room I wished for into the Room of Lost Things. Once inside, I called out for two Hogwarts elves, Nitwit and Oddment. Both seemed to like me the most among the countless elves at the castle. I even learned that the two were partners in the weird societal norm of house elves. It wasn't a very romantic relationship... but elves had to come from somewhere, I supposed.

"Master Lester called?"

"Oooh, you founds the Come and Go Room?"

Oh, right. They called me Lester so that I could say 'They call me Lester' without lying. Seemed to have worked on the hag in Leeds last year.

"Thank you very much for coming, you two. I knew I could count on you."

Both elves squirmed under my praise.

"I learned that I can't summon items in this room. Lady Ravenclaw seemed to have put up enchantments that prevented it, and they are beyond my understanding," both elves nodded knowingly, "so I was wondering... could I task you with finding something for me? Everything I found so far was by mere chance."

"No problem. Nitwit and me can do! We can train our offspring in this task, too. Good training," Oddment excitedly agreed instantaneously. Nitwit seemed equally pleased with such a task.

"Great! Now, what I would like to find most are wands and books. I understand you bring jewelry and money to the coffers of the school to help with the funding?"

"Yes, yes, Master Lester is correct," Nitwit affirmed with a heavy nod. That money thing was something I casually asked last year while I was in the kitchens with the elves. It made sense, honestly. No headmaster would willingly bank millions of galleons over the centuries in a room where it wouldn't be found. Of course, discarded coins would be put into the funding of the school. The same was true for brooms who were instead sorted into a cabinet in Madam Hooch's office and potion ingredients that are placed in Snape's stash.

"We can find books and wands... but... Oddment isn't sure if we can find them all. Many old wands are just... sticks now. Stupid Oddment doesn't know if all wands can be found..."

I held up my hand and reassured, "No matter. Each wand you find will be a boon. One less will not be missed."

"Master Lester is so nice," Nitwit said with a dreamy sigh.

"Alright. Surely, there must be a trunk or two in this room. Please sort whatever you find into trunks at the entrance. I'm going to help whenever I can. Maybe I can find something curious I didn't know I even wanted."

It was critical to word it like I was incompetent myself instead of implying the elves needed help. Elves responded very positively to such wordings.

After a bit more banter, three more elves appeared with Oddment and Nitwit, and the two older elves were talking with them rapidly in hushed orders.

"Are you going to introduce me?" I asked with a calm smile after awkwardly waiting next to them.

"Ah! Excuse us, Master Lester!" Nitwit squeaked out in horror.

I quickly waved away the seriousness and said, "No worries. You were very diligently trying to get to work as fast as possible. It was me who interrupted you."

As Oddment and Nitwit breathed out sighs in relief, I once more asked, "Now, who might those three be? Your children?"

The three smaller elves looked at me in wonder, then at Nitwit, as she explained, "They are. But they are too young to talk, so we haven't given them names yet."

Huh, weird. But house elves, in general, were very weird.

"Maybe Master Lester could honor us with names?" Oddment asked as he stole sheepish glances at his partner Nitwit.

"Uh, sure? Is that okay with you?" Nitwit nodded eagerly in response. Almost too eagerly. "Okay... I'm very sorry to have to ask. My knowledge of your kind is still lacking. Are you three boys or girls?"

"They be girls, all three, Master Lester," Nitwit quickly answered for the three smaller elves.

"Three girls, huh... How about Urd, Skuld, and Verdandi? They are the three fates in Norse Mythology. Very powerful names... and I've been reading about the Norse Pantheon in my leisure time recently to find out more about my own past..."

Oddment excitedly celebrated as Nitwit started crying. I felt like I was somehow played until all three young elves touched my leg, and the same sensation that I had with Patrick ran down my spine.

Naming a young elf with the blessing of their parents was apparently grounds for creating a bond?

"Are you sure? I don't want to make things hard for you here at Hogwarts?" I asked as I looked at all five elves in front of me.

I wasn't sure if they had to birth a certain number of house elves in certain time frames to make sure there were always enough elves at the castle. I wasn't sure if my actions today would find their way back to Dumbledore. I wasn't sure if there were repercussions for what I did...

"You be very good to us elves. You be fine master for these three," Nitwit hurriedly explained as her English got a little worse.

"Master Lester will be great wizard soon. Hoggywarts always have enough elveses," Oddment offered in an oddly sagely tone of voice.

"Alright. I'll take your word for it. There's always enough work to be done in my many plans. Is there anything I need to keep in mind with these younger elves? Teach them language or spells or something?"

"No, no. Now that they are bonded to you, Nitwit and Oddment will do the teaching," Nitwit quickly denied.

What followed was a short explanation on how elves grew, grew up, and how they learned. Apparently, me giving them a task would have originally meant they 'finally' would be bonded to Hogwarts which didn't happen at birth. But Oddment's suggestion to have me name them put a stop to that plan.

Eventually, I asked, "Do you want me to call my house elf Patrick over? He can help, I suppose. Plus, he already knows how I like things at home."

I wasn't too sure about that. Patrick was a very peculiar elf with a lot of baggage. He took serving me very seriously, but he had a bloodthirsty streak in him that was cultivated over decades of torture at the hands of my grandfather. Having him close to those three likely impressionable young house elves was a big gamble.

But they would eventually meet no matter what. I argued that it would be better if it was at Hogwarts with their parents present.

-----

The presence of personal house elves was frowned upon in Hogwarts. The elves of the school would quickly find them and report their entry into the school to the staff. But after I called for Patrick, Nitwit and Oddment made no effort to inform one of the professors. I wondered if they would do it soon, but I couldn't stop them anyway.

I already bonded to three elves born in Hogwarts, and nobody could stop a whole horde of house elves telling on me to Dumbledore or McGonagall.

The entry of Patrick could, therefore, be excused and would just be secondary news if his presence at the school was isolated to the time where he was here to bond with my new elves.

Patrick, all in all, looked a little reluctant, but after reassuring him that his experience and loyalty early in my life made him unique, he quickly warmed up to 'the new addition of my forces'.

I had taken him aside to tell him not to talk about his darker activities until the time was right, and instead tell them about my prefence in getting greeted, how I liked my food, and how I wanted them to present themselves to others.

There was no way I would allow them to run around in a flimsy toga made of a discarded pillow case. They would get little suits, just like Patrick. Another task my grizzled elf gladly undertook.

With that taken care of, it was time to put my Occlumency to the test.

It was time to try and collect a horcrux.