Black and White

Chapter Two

Dark Legacy: Betrayal From Jealousy

"Look, that´s her."

"She´s his daughter?"

"Poor girl, that´s probably why she´s come here."

Carmeline gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the whispers that followed her to the Great Hall the next morning. I don´t want their pity, why can´t they just leave me alone?

Taking a seat at the Gryffindor table, she helped herself to orange juice and waited for the Marauders to put in an appearance.

"Morning, Carmel," Remus sat down next to her and studied her irritated expression. Taking a breath, he was cut off by Carmeline.

"Don´t say it."

"Wasn´t even thinking about it. Toast?" Remus offered her a plate, his sharp ears picking up the muttered remarks that were causing Carmeline´s annoyance.

A few minutes later, they were joined by most of the other Gryffindors. Professor Lexion swept over to the table carrying a stack of timetables which she proceeded to hand out amidst a chorus of groans from the students as they discovered that they had all their classes with the Slytherins or Defence first thing in the morning.

Carmeline had neither of these things. What she did have was a note attached to the bottom of her timetable, requesting her presence in the Headmaster´s office and `Acid pop´ written in flowing script.

"Umm, does anyone know where Dumbledore´s office is?" she asked the Marauders tentatively.

Sirius raised his eyebrows "Why?"

"He wants to see me before lessons start today."

"Yes, I know where it is," answered James, looking up from his bacon and eggs, "I´ll show you on the way to Runes."

Carmeline grinned, "Thanks."

***********

Dumbledore paced his study, a letter clutched in his gnarled hands. So, it has begun. It should not have been her.

A light knocking snapped him out of his reverie. He waved vaguely towards the door and sunk into his seat behind the desk.

Carmeline stepped through the doorway, looking around in fascination at the strange magical instruments and portraits that lined the walls of Dumbledore´s office.

"Take a seat, Miss White," he said finally, pointing to a plush leather chair. She sat down, somewhat hesitantly, wondering why she had been summoned.

Dumbledore studied her for a minute, sizing up the daughter of his old friend. Gaborn had insisted that both of his children be tutored at home by a delegate from the Ministry - because of the problems with their heritage, so he said. Carmeline had grown up cocooned by her parents and was more naïve than people thought. She sat stiff-backed in the chair, twisting her pale braid nervously.

"Miss White, I received a letter from Mr Ollivander last night, concerning your visit."

Carmeline suddenly understood, "Yes, none of them suited me, he didn´t know why."

Dumbledore reached into his desk drawer and withdrew a long box, " I have a theory. The Ministry of Magic will not approve, therefore I would have your word that what I tell you here will not go any further."

Carmeline nodded, her eyes fixed on the mahogany case that lay on his desk, curiosity overriding caution.

The Headmaster stood up and made his way to the window, looking out over the grounds of his beloved school. I would that her legacy does not herald that which we fear most.

"What do you know of the Baron de Grindelwald?" he asked Carmeline, his back to her.

"Not very much. He was a Russian Necromancer who lived in the last century. He moved to Britain when he was seventy-three to continue his reign of terror that spanned ninety years until he was finally defeated in 1945 by...you,"

Professor Dumbledore nearly laughed. For a girl who confessed she didn´t know much about him, she is remarkably well informed.

"Correct. I see you will be a valuable addition to Professor Binns´ History of Magic class." the Headmaster turned to look at Carmeline, and she was startled to see worry in his eyes.

"Grindelwald came from a very powerful family of magic users. They were feared throughout the world as the greatest sorcerers in history. However, they could not have accomplished this without the help of a certain wand maker by the name Ollivander."

Carmeline´s eyes widened, staring at the Professor.

"One of the present Mr Ollivander´s ancestors who used cores for his wands that previously had been illegal, due to their potency."

She floundered to find words to express her confusion. Why was he telling her this? Surely the Professor didn´t think that an illegal wand core would suit her better than a conventional one?

"Grindelwald murdered the wand maker to ensure that he would be unrivalled, and therefore unable to be defeated. He also cast a spell on his wand, so that if he died, his wand would only be used by his future kindred." The Headmaster gazed pointedly at Carmeline and a cold certainty crept into her mind.

He opened the case to show her. Inside lay a jet black wand, engraved with faded grey runes, "Ebony, ten inches long, black phoenix feather," Dumbledore told her, watching closely for her reaction.

"What do the runes mean?"

"They are runes of power, longevity, wisdom, wit and dominance."

Carmeline shifted uncomfortably, thinking that he must be mistaken in this, but not wanting to question his judgement, "Professor, I don´t think..."

"There is only one way to find out," he offered the case to her, silently urging her to take the wand.

Shaking slightly, she picked it up, hoping that Dumbledore was wrong, and she was not related to a Dark Sorcerer.

No.

A telltale warmth spread through her fingers to the rest of her body, and the wand glowed blue in her hand.

Professor Dumbledore sighed an brought out something else from his desk. It was a book entitled: The Grindelwald Legacy - Necromancy and Sorcery.

"Go now and speak of this to no one, the less that know the truth, the safer you will be. I am sorry for what was brought upon you, but you must now be on your guard, for there are those who will resent your heritage and feel threatened by it. You know of whom I speak." The Professor ushered her from his office and closed the door behind her, leaning heavily on it.

Carmeline left the tower and stood outside the stone gargoyle in the corridor, lost in thought.

The kin of the darkest wizard that had ever lived. Another taint to add to the ever-growing list.

And now there is a price upon my head.

***************

"Cantus concentus." Carmeline pointed her wand absently at the silk top hat that stood on her desk, causing it to rip at its brim and sing the school anthem.

Lily stared at it for a moment before turning to Avalon and whispering, "What´s with that?" softly.

Avalon shrugged and turned back to her party hat that was meant to be singing `Happy Birthday´. Unfortunately it wasn´t complying to her wishes and was currently bawling `Take me to the River´ by Al Green , extremely off-key.

I´ll do more than take you to the river - I drown you if you don´t shut up. Avalon thought, drumming her fingers on the desk in frustration.

Eventually Professor Flitwick made his way to where the three girls sat. He merely stared at Avalon who flushed and hastily performed a silencing spell on her erratic hat. Lily didn´t fare any better, "You have been working on this for the last half hour and you have yet to make any progress, Miss Evans."

Lily looked slightly downcast, Charms was her favourite subject, "Sorry Professor."

But the Professor wasn´t listening, "Very impressive, Miss White, you obviously take after your mother, she was my star pupil during her time here." This seemed to drag Carmeline back to the present, and she fixed Professor Flitwick with a penetrating glare.

"No. I am nothing like her." Carmeline almost snarled these words, and an uneasy quiet settled on the room.

The chiming of bells signalled the end of the lesson, the scuffling of chairs breaking the silence that seemed almost suffocating. Carmeline picked up her bag and practically ran out of the class, paying no attention to Lily and Avalon´s calls.

Threading her way through the crowded corridors, Carmeline made for Gryffindor Tower, not knowing her way around well enough to chance finding somewhere more private.

"Honeycomb." The Fat Lady´s portrait swung open, and Carmeline climbed through the Portrait Hole into the Common Room. Finding it mercifully deserted, she strode up the staircase to the dormitory and sank down onto her bed. No, I am nothing like her, that is why she resents me.

Her eyes glowed gold momentarily, before she blinked away her tears and slowly drew out the book Dumbledore had given her.

******

"Carmel! Come out, come out wherever you are!" a familiar voice yelled up the stairs, coming closer.

Sirius.

Carmeline groaned and snapped the book shut, hastily throwing it into her locker and laying back on the bed, pretending to be asleep. A realisation hit her as she lay still, steadying her breathing to make her pose more authentic. I missed the rest of my classes. She let out a silent groan, knowing she would have to apologise to all her teachers tomorrow.

Presently, the door handle clicked, and Sirius stuck his head into the room. Grinning, he bounded over to her bed and sat down, for a moment merely watching her. Carmeline twitched nervously under his intense stare that she knew was focussed on her. Eventually, he reached over to shake Carmeline into wakefulness, but was startled when she flinched away from him and practically leapt off the bed.

"Don´t...do that." She eyed him warily from the other side of the bed, feeling just a twinge of guilt at his hurt expression.

"Sorry," he said, sounding truly regretful.

For a while neither of them spoke again until Sirius chanced to ask her, "What happened with Dumbledore?"

Carmeline gazed at him, unblinkingly.

He began to feel uncomfortable, "You don´t have to tell me, I just wondered what had stressed you so much."

She cocked her head, asking a silent question.

"Lily and Ava told us what happened in Charms."

"Us?" Great, now the whole gang will be wondering what´s going on. "Guess you drew the short straw then, Siri, the only one brave enough to ask?"

He gave her a winning smile, "So, do I get to find out?"

Carmeline averted her eyes, picking at a stray thread in her blanket, determined not to break her promise to Dumbledore.

"Well...will you at least come down to dinner with us?" Sirius tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice, and failed miserably.

"I´m not hungry. I think I´ll just stay here and catch up on some reading."

Sirius let out a long sigh, before rising from the bed somewhat reluctantly, "You can´t hide away forever, Carmel. Sometimes you just have to trust people." With that parting shot, he left, shutting the door firmly behind him.

******

"Is she ok?"

"Why isn´t she coming to dinner?"

"Where´s she been?"

"Did she tell you why she acted like that in Charms?"

Questions bombarded Sirius as soon as he came back into the common room. He glanced around wearily, and threw himself onto a sofa next to James.

"Carmel isn´t saying a thing. She isn´t coming to dinner either, reckons she´s going to read instead."

"What?" said James, scandalised, "miss dinner? Is she mad?"

The others laughed, and slowly the tension ebbed away.

"C´mon, we´ll miss the good stuff if we don´t get a move on."

The whole group left the Tower, making it once again peacefully quiet.

A shadow slipped, unnoticed, out of the portrait hole after them, heading in the opposite direction.

***************

Lily gasped and sat bolt upright in bed, shaking. Finding herself safe in her dormitory, she relaxed slightly and threw back the curtains on her four poster, feeling stifled.

She glanced around the room. Avalon lay curled under her covers, faint snores came from behind Joss´ curtains and the other two girls in her dormitory were there. Only Carmeline was still missing.

She had been gone when they returned from dinner and never made an appearance throughout the whole evening. It was only when the Common Room clock struck eleven that they began to worry about her.

Now it was two in the morning and Carmeline´s bed was undisturbed, the sheets still folded neatly.

Lily blinked. There was something...her wand. Carmeline´s wand lay on the bed, silver runes glinting sharply in the moonlight that fell in shafts from the window. Looking around to make sure that she wasn´t being observed, Lily slid her bare feet onto the icy stone floor and padded over to the adjacent bed, reaching out to pick up the wand...which promptly levitated away from her.

******

"Transfiguration should be fun, hey Moony?" Sirius had a glint in his eyes as he looked past Remus to the Slytherin table.

Remus groaned, a hand over his eyes, "Why they put you in with the Slytherins I´ll never know. Dumbledore has a very strange sense of revenge."

Further down the table, James, Peter and Joss were discussing Quidditch tactics. Joss was to try out for a chaser on the house team. James chose not to tell her that Carmeline was also hoping to get the place, he didn´t think she needed any more hassle from Joss.

Lily and Avalon were rather quiet. They had both noticed that Carmeline hadn´t come back to the Tower last night.

"It must have something to do with what Dumbledore spoke to her about," Avalon mused, pouring milk onto her cereal.

Lily said nothing. Something about the wands trick last night had spooked her. Normal wands didn´t perform spells independently of their owners, and especially not levitating spells on themselves.

Soon, breakfast was over and the group was heading towards Transfiguration, "Do you think Lexion would notice if I turned Malfoy into a baboon?" asked Sirius pensively, as they made their way along the corridor, the younger students flattening themselves against the walls to let the fabled Marauders pass.

Remus sniggered, "Well, it´s not too far from his normal state."

"Good point..." Remus noticed him considering this idea.

"Oh no, Padfoot, it´s the second day of term. I don´t think the other Gryffindors will be too impressed if you give us negative house points in the first week back."

Sirius nodded mournfully, "Suppose not." Remus breathed a silent sigh of relief, Sirius was one of the best at Transfiguration and chances were, he could do exactly what he said he could, "Better save it for next week then." His laughter rang through the hall, prompting Lily to punch him in the stomach.

"Ow, Lils, what was that for?"

The fiery redhead glared up at Sirius, "Fickle, aren´t you Si? Carmel goes missing and you hardly notice it, even though you seemed very friendly with her yesterday."

Sirius chewed his bottom lip, eyes darting around the corridor as if expecting to see Carmeline standing there. Lily was gratified to see the concern clearly on his face now, turning away and stalking down the hall ahead of them.

******

"Take your seats class." The curt voice of Professor Lexion rang through the classroom over the scrape of chairs and scuffling of bags.

"Turn to page ninety-three of your textbooks. Today we will be taking notes on the processes and techniques associated with the use of Muggle objects in Transfiguration and if you carry on your attempts to change Mr Malfoy´s desk into an armadillo, I will be forced to take twenty-five points from Gryffindor, is that clear, Mr Black?" Professor Lexion said all this in one breath, earning her a stunned look from Lucius and a sheepish grin from Sirius.

The class settled down and soon the only sound in the room was the scratching of quills. Professor Lexion scanned the room, ticking off who was there on her register. She came to Carmeline´s name and realised that she was missing.

"Does anyone know where Miss White is?" she asked, almost reluctant to disturb the peace that so rarely appeared.

Lily shot Sirius a warning look, as he looked as if he were about to speak. He ducked his head and continued his note-taking.

There was a light knocking on the door of the classroom, "Enter," snapped the Professor, raising her head to glare at the person who dared disturb her class. The door creaked open and a hooded figure stepped into the room. The class simply stared, the only sound in the room was the sigh of breaths. Even in the bright sunshine that filtered through the high windows, the figure looked sinister.

Carmeline slowly lowered her hood and looking neither left nor right, strode to the front of the class and dropped a note on Professor Lexion´s desk, "Forgive my lateness, Professor, I was unavoidably detained." The Professor nodded, she seemed unable to speak, and gestured for Carmeline to take a seat.

Carmeline slid into a chair in front of Sirius and took out her book, a quill, ink and a piece of parchment, She began to make notes, not acknowledging her friends who were exchanging mystified glances behind her.

In that brief instance, Sirius had known that she was not simply joking about going into Slytherin. Not even Severus Snape could achieve the stunned silence of a whole class, and his reputation far preceded him.

***************

"Carmel!" Lily ran down the hallway after her, eventually catching up, "What was that all about? And where have you been, we were all really worried."

Nothing like making a person feel guilty, Lily. Thought Carmeline, looking sadly at her, "I went home."

"What? How...?" Lily spluttered, confused.

"Professor Dumbledore has a Floo Network in his office," she shrugged, "He gave me permission to use it."

Lily sighed, and was clearly about to say something more as they climbed through the Portrait Hole, when they were joined by the rest of the Marauders who immediately began interrogating her.

"Quiet!" she snapped at last, her temper beginning to fray, "I can´t tell you what transpired in Dumbledore´s office because he forbade me to, clear?"

"I thought we were meant to be your friends," muttered Sirius, sulkily, not looking at her.

Carmeline reached out a hand and raised his chin so that his gaze met hers "And that´s why I can´t tell you," she looked around at all of them, dropping her hand back to her side, "I can´t, I don´t want to put any of you in danger."

"Nothing like over-dramatising, is there, White?" a cold voice came from one of the high-back armchairs by the fire, and Joss stood up, sauntering over the where the Marauders ringed Carmeline, "After all, it´s just a bit of black magic. Necromancy wasn´t it?"

Her speech abilities seemed to have been disabled and she could only watch in shock as Joss pulled The Grindelwald Legacy out of her bag, holding it up by the spine as if disgusted by it´s very existence. She flipped through it to the place that Carmeline had marked the day before and began to read in a clear, loud voice.

"Grindelwald´s kindred were hunted down by the Ministry´s Aurors after his defeat in 1945, to eliminate the chance rising of another Dark Lord with his powers. The wand of the Necromancer was given into the care of the Ministry of Magic in Britain. It had an extremely powerful `Presidium´ charm placed on it, making it impossible for anyone not directly related to Grindelwald to utilise its power. This wand is particularly distinctive, constructed of ebony, it contains a black phoenix feather core, the most potent of wand cores known to the wizarding world. Various runes of power are branded into it, using ithildin, the legendary Elvish substance that mirrors starlight and moonlight, but will show up a dull grey by the light of day."

Joss looked up, smiling malevolently, "I don´t think I need to read further, would you agree Carmeline? I should think you are suitably ashamed of what you are by now."

Carmeline made noise as if she were choking and strode forward, wrenching the book out of Joss´ grip, hissing, "Fool!" she pulled the ancient tome to her, eyes narrowing to slits in her fury, "Don´t you think I would have told you all had I been allowed? It was kept private for your own safety!"

"I think you´d better tell us what´s going on, Carmel, start from the beginning," murmured Avalon, staring intently at her, waiting for an answer.

"I wouldn´t mind knowing what is going on, myself. Miss White, I warned you against this." Carmeline spun around to see Dumbledore standing by the Portrait Hole. She hung her head, dismayed by the disappointment she saw in his eyes.

"It´s not her fault Professor, Joss was going through her stuff and found the book on Grindelwald and..." Lily and James began to protest.

However, Dumbledore was no longer listening, "Is this true, Miss Tournel?"

Joss stared at her friends in horror, then she gazed at the Headmaster, a near perfect expression of regret on her face, "Yes Professor, I was worried about her, when she didn´t come back last night."

"I will see you in my office, Miss Tournel." Dumbledore´s voice was cold and he gestured to the Portrait Hole behind him. Joss walked up the steps and disappeared through it.

Dumbledore turned back to the Marauders, "The damage has been done. I trust each of you not to divulge this information to another living soul. Miss Tournel will be adequately punished for her part in this. I do not intend to lie to you, I have never done so before, and I am not about to start. The information you now know will put all of you in grave danger from the dark side, but most of all, it puts Miss White - and in fact, the whole of Hogwarts - in a peril beyond imagining. If this becomes common knowledge, she will almost certainly be a target of the rising Dark Lord. Is this understood?"

They nodded mutely, unconsciously drawing closer together.

Dumbledore turned on his heel and swept out of the Tower, leaving a very stunned group of teenagers staring after him.