Unusual Beginnings

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UNUSUAL BEGINNINGS 08- THE HAND THAT ROCKED THE CRADLES

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July 22 1988 (Earlier that day)

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Raine had been bored the whole day if her father hadn’t just bought the latest book of the “The Kitty Mysteries,” one of the many children’s series she reads. “The Missing Paw” was the fifth of the series and she had waited for a year ever since she finished the fourth book, “The Tattle Tail.” Her father and her uncle Benjamin had graciously paid the owner of the Flourish and Blotts just so they could get the books in advance for their daughters. The minute the books were shipped to the stores, the owner’s son showed up in front of their mansions and hand-delivered the book to the girls. When the book was delivered, Raine’s mother, Lena, brought her over to Tali’s house since she wanted to spend time with her twin sister, Nell. The mothers talked in Nell’s craft room while the girls brought their books to Tali’s reading room. The girls had not put down the books ever since they got them, except for lunch since their parents forbade them from reading while eating.

After they ate, Tali and Raine headed back to the reading room and continued to finish their books. Raine sat lazily on Tali’s green leather sofa while her cousin lay on the carpet near the fireplace. They quietly read for two hours when Raine started to stretch her arms.

“I just finished page sixty five. What page are you up to?”

“I am still on page forty .”

“Ha! I read faster than you,” taunted Raine.

“No fair. You’re older.”

“It’s not my fault. I am older and smarter.”

Tali blew a raspberry at her, and Raine in turn made a face at her. They both laughed at each and went back to reading their books. Out of the blue, Raine felt a sudden burning sensation on her left arm. She hurriedly noted the pages of the book with a bookmark, shot up from her seat and walked towards the window. She looked out as if to find the reason for the sudden stabbing sensation from her arm, only to be lost in deep thought. She realized that she had already started to hyperventilate when Tali placed a bookmark in between the pages and sat up.

“Did you suddenly have the urge to let me catch up with the reading?” joked Tali.

Raine knew she couldn’t hide the look of worry from her face since Tali’s voice changed from teasing to anxious.

“What’s wrong?” Tali continued.

“Nothing,” Raine said, still looking out the window. “It’s… It’s…”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” she said as she started to rub her left arm. “My arm just hurt all of a sudden.”

“Why did it?” Tali started to joke again. “You haven’t been leaning on it while reading your book, have you?”

“No. I just felt it twinge. That was why I got up.”

“Hmm. Quite odd why that happened.”

“You’re telling me. I feel like something is bound to happen… or just happened. I don’t know.” Raine touched her upper chest, as if trying to feel her heart beat. “My heart seems like it is about to pop right out of my chest.”

“Eww, spare me the detail!” exclaimed Tali. “I think your heart is beating fast because you jumped up so suddenly. It happens to me all the time. Especially whenever father pops out of…”

“Girls!” bellowed Benjamin after appearing at the sitting room door. Ben’s sudden reappearance made Tali jump right into Raine, and scream right into her ear.

“Ow!” yelped Raine as she pushed Tali away from her. “Tali! I don’t want to become deaf!”

“It’s father’s fault!” screamed Tali. “Father! Don’t just… appear out of nowhere. You know me.”

“Sorry, dear,” apologized Benjamin. “Teatime at the veranda, and your father is joining us, Raine.”

“Alright.”

When Benjamin suddenly disappeared, Raine started to laugh.

“You should’ve seen your face! Aah!” Her imitation of Tali’s face was far from grotesque.

“Eh!” exclaimed Tali as she paw-punched Raine on her upper arm. “Leave me alone.”

“Your father just loves doing that, doesn’t he?”

“Like bloody hell. He does that all the time. I am surprised I haven’t died of a heart-attack yet.”

“Yeah well,” said Raine. “Our fathers are going to have one if we done apparate ourselves to the veranda in less than a minute.”

“We can’t apparate.”

“Then we ought to move our little feet now, don’t we?. What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

*****

The afternoon tea and cookies ended with Tali giving up on explaining the storyline of what she read so far of the “Missing Paw” to their poor confused parents. It wasn’t quite her fault though. It would’ve been quite hard to understand any child telling a story of a cat while the thunderstorm rocked the whole area. Raine on the other hand remained quiet, since she promised Tali to not reveal what she had read so far. After they were all done, their fathers let them off so the girls decided to go back to the reading room, but Tali actually had something else in mind.

“Hold on,” she said as she pulled Raine towards the direction of the kitchen.

“What now? I want to read the book! I want to finish it before the day ends.”

“The book is going to sit around the whole day. It’s not like it’s going anywhere.”

“You can’t just say books ‘sit around all day.’ My books flutter around my library once in a while.”

“Yeah, sure.” But Tali was too busy looking at the contents of the bread box. “Ooh! Chocolate Mousse pie!”

“Great,” muttered Raine under her breath. “Like you need more sugar.”

“Heee!!!” screeched Tali as her cousin squirmed because of her high pitched squeal. Tali hurriedly headed towards the utensil cabinet to grab a butter knife, two forks and saucers, while Raine leaned on a shelf, with a worried look on her face.

“No running with knives.” Raine paused to think. “Oh jeez I sound like my father.”

“Heh. Pie?”

“Just give me a huge slice.”

While they help themselves with the pie, they heard

Their fathers chattering amongst themselves. Tali motioned Raine to remain quiet while she snuck closer to the kitchen door. Raine followed suit.

“Riley was almost sent to St. Mungo’s,” uttered Redvin. “I can’t believe that boy.”

“Mungo’s? What’s he doing…” whispered Tali, but Raine covered her mouth.

“Staying under that tree during the storm, what was he thinking? He’s lucky he didn’t die.”

“Die?” mouthed Raine as she started to get teary. She then shook her head in disbelief.

Tali, knowing that her cousin breaks down easily upon hearing bad news placed an arm around her and patted her back while the fathers continued with their talk.

“He’ll be fine, alright?” she whispered. “We don’t know what happened. Best not to panic before we even know what’s going on, alright?”

Raine nodded her head so they continued to listen in on the conversation.

“We should not lose our authority on these children, for Master’s sake,” explained Redvin. “I don’t know what Ranco’s going to do with that boy.”

“We’ll figure it out later. Let’s get the girls.” Be then started to shout. “Girls! Tali, Raine! Get down from there and hurry up. We’re leaving immediately. It’s urgent.”

Raine straightened up as Tali dragged her towards the living room and gathered their rain coats. After Tali finished buttoning up her raincoat, Raine held her hand.

“I’m scared, Tali,” quivered Raine as she tried to hide her shaking hands. “Your father said it was urgent. That means something bad happened to Riley.”

“No, Raine. Here,” she said as she pulled Raine’s hood up. “Don’t even think about it. You’re going to psyche yourself out. He’ll be fine.”

“Maybe he hurt his arm. Maybe he fell from the tree or something.”

“You think this because your arm hurt before?”

“Yeah.”

“Raine…”

Yeah, Lucius,” Tali heard her father say as he held his Dark Mark. “We just have to get the girls. We’ll meet you at the Death Eater mansion.” Benjamin let go of his arm and looked up at the ceiling. “Girls! Let’s go!!!”

“We’re right here,” said both of the girls as they ran towards him.

*****

The fathers lead the girls into the fireplace and Floo-ed themselves on to Death Eater Mansion. When they stepped out of the fireplace, the girls headed straight towards the auditorium. Draco was sitting on the podium, his eyes fixed on the floor with a sad look in his face. He didn’t seem to have noticed that the girls had arrived since he bolted upwards after Tali spoke.

“Draco!” cried Tali as she hugged Draco. “We came as soon as we heard.”

Draco was taken aback from Tali’s hugs but he hugged her back, trying to hide his worry.

Raine patted his head and hugged him also.

“Are you alright?” she asked. “Were you hurt?”

“I’m alright. Just a little shaken up.”

“What happened to Riley? Were you there with him?”

“Yes, and no,” answered Draco calmly. “It was during the thunderstorm. We were both out in the rain by the tree that you told him about, Raine.” Raine nodded her head in understanding. “He stayed sitting on that spot while I headed towards the house. I just turned away for a second and the next thing I know, Riley was lying face down on the foot of the tree and the tree was burning.”

“Oh goodness,” said Raine nervously as she twiddled her fingers in knots. “And then?”

“I went into the house and screamed for father,” he continued. “Father made me stay inside while he and Uncle Ranco ran for the tree. Riley was already unconscious when they brought him in the house.” Draco paused as she held both the girls’ hands. “They were covering his left arm. Father all led us here. Thankfully, Riley was awake once we got here.”

“How is he doing now?” asked Tali as she rubbed Raine’s back, trying to calm her down.

“They turned the weapon room into an infirmary. Father won’t let me see Riley yet. He didn’t say anything else except that I should wait for you girls to come and that they all had to talk to Riley when he regains consciousness.”

“I really hope he’s okay.”

“Me too. I was just arguing with him before everything happened. I should have forced him into the house. If anything happens to him, I won’t forgive myself.”

“It was not your fault, Draco,” said Tali as the three of them sat on the podium. “It’s no one’s fault. It was an accident. You both did not know that lightning was going to strike that tree. Don’t blame yourself, alright?”

After Draco nodded his head, Tali gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek and placed her arms around Draco and Raine.

“I have a good feeling that’s he’s going to be fine,” she said cheerfully. “Trust me. I have sixth sense about these things. He’s going to be walking towards us any minute now.”

“What are the possibilities?” joked Raine.

“Anything’s possible,” answered Riley in a hoarse voice. Riley’s left arm was in a sling while his face was plastered with a couple of small bandages. Upon seeing Riley, Raine jumped up to him and carefully hugged him.

“I’m so happy you’re okay,” she said as she let go of him and swiped the tears from her eyes.

“Told you he’s fine,” said Tali before lightly hitting him on his left upper arm.

“Ow!” winced Riley. “Easy.”

“Oops, sorry.” Tali had accidentally just nudged his arm.

“Hey,” said Draco weakly as he stared at his cousin’s bandages, but he was loss for words. “I… I didn’t mean what I said…”

“You had a reason to be angry since I pushed you to the ground. But knowing my father, he will punish me once I get home.”

“He can’t punish you. Your arm was punishment enough.”

“Nothing’s enough for him. Now he’s talking to your fathers.”

“About what?”

“About us, about what we are, about what we did... something like that.”

“What did the rest of us do?” asked Tali. “For once, I didn’t do anything.”

“Uncle Lucius will be talking to us soon. That’s all I know.”

“Great,” groaned Draco. “My father, the great speaker, is about to talk. Brace yourselves.”

*****

When Riley turned around, he was quite surprised to see his Uncle Lucius calmed and collected. He was expecting him to be furious since the accident had happened in his household and that he was the most unforgiving of the four fathers.

Lucius led Riley and the other children towards the podium and motioned them to sit. They all sat obediently, the girls taking off their raincoats before taking their seats. As they were accustomed to while being lectured by any of the fathers, the children sat by age: Riley was always on the leftmost, Tali on the rightmost and between them were Draco and Raine respectively.

“Now children,” started Lucius. “Let me say that I am quite upset from what I have heard from your own fathers. For some reason, you have all misbehaved and the reason, I believe, is that you are angry. I would like to hear why. Tell me, in your own words, why you are all angry.”

Riley looked at the girls who seemed to also have been in shock.

“Excuse me, uncle?” said Raine. “If I didn’t hear you wrong, you want us to say what we want to say, without punishment or hard feelings?” asked Raine.

“As long as we all stay calm, my ears are open. Otherwise… we’re just going to have to play it by ear.”

Given the chances, Riley wanted to curse out every single curse word he knew at that very moment but he restrained himself from doing so. Instead, he cleared his head of anger and thought of what he wanted to say.

“I want you, all four of you fathers, to stop using those.” Riley was pointing at the lump under Lucius’ shirt. He knew that Lucius knew what he was talking about, but he didn’t raise his hopes about what he had just said.

“Is this what this is all about? Your argument with your father that led to your accident and Raine’s attempt to jump out the window are all because of the Charms, am I correct?”

There was no answer from the two older children.

“Raine?” asked Lucius as he held Raine’s chin. “Tell me, Raine, honestly. Do you hate your father?”

“No.”

“Are you lying?”

“No. I really don’t hate him. I just hate him for punishing me the way he does… with the Charms and with his fists.”

“Hmm. I see. And how about you, Riley? Do you feel the same way?”

Riley shook his head. When Riley looked up at him, there was a hint of surprise in Lucius’ face.

“I don’t just hate my father because he uses the Charm on me. I hate him because he hits me, he verbally abuses me. I hate him because he’s work-driven lunatic who loves power. I hate him because he is a Death Eater. I hate the Dark Lord for making my father evil and turning him into the monstrosity that he is right now He caused all this! He is causing the pain that you fathers inflicted on us kids.”

Riley watched the two girls cringe and turn their faces away while Draco shook his head as he covered her eyes. Riley knew he hit a nerve. He knew saying anything against the Dark Lord was treason and, from what he heard from the other children, previous Death Eaters have died even just saying the Dark Lord’s name the wrong way. But Riley was no longer afraid. He wanted to die earlier that day and his missed opportunity to do so gave him another one. He was ready to face the inevitable.

“I see,” answered Lucius coldly. “I asked about your thoughts and that’s what you feel. That’s that then?” when no one else answered, Lucius started to walk back and forth for a bit before staying in one spot. “Your fathers and I have been talking about this for some time now and, even though the Dark Lord had wanted us to do this when you are much older, we decided that you are all mature enough to hear what we have to say.” Lucius took along stride towards the entrance of the weapon room and walked back towards them. He sighed and continued, “Did you know why the Dark Lord hand-picked the four of you personally out of all the children in the world?”

“Because we’re pureblood, father?” asked Draco.

“Besides that, anyone? I am not surprised that you don’t know since we never really explained to you your purpose.”

“Our purpose?” asked Tali. “What do you need the four of us for? The Dark Lord needs followers who work for him so that he can get rid of Mudbloods. We’re just children. We don’t even have wands. And we could be Squibs, for all we know.”

“Maybe you are,” joked Raine. “But please, don’t jinx it for the rest of us!” Her joke made Lucius chortle.

“Very funny, my dear,” he half-laughed. “But you will find out what you all are soon enough.”

“If we’re not Squibs,” argued Raine. “And we most certainly can’t be… Mudbloods… that means we’re witches and wizards then.”

“That is a great deduction, but now is not the time to talk about that. I would like to talk to you more about these charms and Lord Voldemort. You see, Lord Voldemort created these charms through Ultima Poena, a very powerful spell when you were about five years old. Do you remember way back then?” The children shook their heads.

“Of course not,” Lucius continued. “You were still babies then. But let me tell you what happened. Lord Voldemort touched your heads, blessed you with his spell and created the Poena Charms.”

“Blessed us?” asked Riley. “Those charms weren’t a blessing. They were a curse.”

“Surely, you don’t understand Master’s plans for all of you,” reasoned Lucius. “In fact…”

Lucius reached into his pocket and handed paper wrapped items to each of the children, except for Draco. Instead, Lucius took off the charm from under his shirt and placed it on Draco’s neck.

“Lord Voldemort wanted you to have these.”

Riley looked at Raine’s hand as she uncovered what was hidden inside the paper. It was in fact the charms.

“Are these… the talismans, Uncle Lucius?” asked Raine nervously as she helped Riley open his.

“It is, my dear.”

Riley looked up to him, in sheer confusion and disbelief.

“You’re giving them to us?” asked Riley as he admired the item in his palm.

“The other fathers and I were just giving back what was rightfully yours in the first place.”

“Rightfully ours?”

“Yes. It belonged to you. You see, your fathers and I have used the power of the charms over these years and we haven’t even come close to using its ultimate power. Your fathers and I will try to help you unearth the secrets of those charms.”

“What power and secrets does it have?” asked Tali. “Can we make things appear with it, for example?”

“Anything you like. But it takes work to be able to use it..”

“Hang on,” said Riley. “Uncle Lucius, you said that ‘you haven’t even come close to using it’s ultimate power.’ What do you mean by that?”

Lucius smirked.

“You see, the fathers and I have only been able to do simple wand-less magic with it. We still have to know the spell and we still have to imagine and know how the wand-waving is done to get results. You four, on the other hand, will be able to… how should I say this… will it.”

“You mean, we can just think things to happen and it happens?”

“Exactly.”

“Wow,” was all Tali and Raine could say. The boys were left rather speechless.

“Do you still hate Lord Voldemort, Riley?” asked Lucius maliciously. “He gave this to you. He’s giving you the world through it. And what did you have to say towards him? You detested him. You blame him for everything that turned bad in your life! The Master is feeding with a golden spoon and you bite back. What have you got to say for yourself?”

Riley didn’t know what to say. He knew he was turning red since he felt face was warm and sweat forming on his temples.

“You are to blame for your mistakes,” continued Lucius. “You can’t blame us for punishing you.”

“But you go to the extremes!” screamed Draco. “We make little mistakes and you punish us for it. That’s not right. It’s not. We’re not perfect.”

“And neither am I,” apologized Lucius. “I am sorry, son. But I promise to try my hardest if you promise not to disobey me.” When Draco nodded his head, Lucius touched his head and turned to the other children.

“Your fathers were hard on you because they wanted you to learn to follow our orders. We had to be direct and stern and very strict. If you didn’t know how to follow our orders, what are the chances that you will follow the Dark Lord’s, huh?”

“My father and I had a talk like this a few days ago,” said Raine.

“What did he tell you, Raine? Tell them.”

“Father said I’ve got to learn my place. I was to become the Dark Lord’s follower but first I have to prove that I can follow orders by listening to what my father says. And he said that we belong to Him already and that there is no point fighting it. Father said he didn’t want to hurt me, but if hurting me is the only way I would listen to him, he would to do it.”

“Did you all understand the logic of this?”

They all nodded their heads.

“But Uncle Lucius,” said Tali. “Did Raine’s father mean that we belong to Lord Voldemort like how your house belongs to you?”

“Quite the contrary my dear. That was a slight misunderstanding. It’s more like how Draco belongs to me.”

“Like a son is to his father?”

“Precisely! You see, our Master chose the rest of you because you are all his successors.”

Tali just raised an eyebrow. “Successors? You mean, his heirs, Uncle Lucius?”

“Very good, Tali.”

“Uncle, you’re saying that we are all… related then?”

“In one way or another… and He did leave us something quite important”

“What did he leave, father?” questioned Draco. “Riches I assume.”

“You see son,” continued Lucius, “money or certain physical characteristics aren’t the only things that can be inherited.”

“Then what did he leave?”

“He left us his all powerful legacy, my boy. He left us everything He can possibly give us. Our good names are an example. You all know our families have been known as the purest of bloods. Even a tiny tinge of Muggle blood, even those who are magical, is considered a disregard. But our names have been connected to the Dark Lord when he was still ruling the Wizarding world. People feared Death Eaters then and still even when we’ve disbanded.”

“But, father,” questioned Draco. “The Death Eaters haven’t disbanded.”

“Ah, but that’s what the public doesn’t know.”

“Or shouldn’t know,” added Raine. “If people knew, they could throw everyone in Azkaban.”

“That’s why I told you time and time again to be careful about what you say. We fear them in a way because we don’t want to be thrown to that awful place. People fear us in turn for being Death Eaters.”

“But why do we want them to fear us?” asked Tali. “I mean, it doesn’t really make sense.”

Lucius touched her head and kneeled in front of her. “Because, dear girl, if they do not fear us, they treat us like we are their equals and we are not. We are pure and they are not. They are unfortunately tainted with Muggle blood and they should not be treated like us. And with your help, we will get the Dark Lord back in power. We will be right on his side as he rises again.”

“No one can prove that He is even alive. Even if He made these charms about three years ago, no one has seen him ever since or else it would all be in the paper.”

“But then, no one proved that He is dead, now, right?” Tali nodded her head at him. “Believe me. The Dark Lord is not dead, Tali. When he created these charms, he told us Death Eaters to remain patient and loyal to the circle. And that’s what your fathers and I have been doing.” Lucius then pointed to where her heart is. “He’s very much alive. He lives in you, all of you. The day he chose you, he left a huge part of him in you. The Dark Mark in every Death Eater is a drop of his blood.”

“And the Dark Lord’s blessings makes us more different than other children?” stressed Riley.

“Yes, Riley. You are all better than everyone else. You are all pureblood. You see, some Wizarding families are better, even if they are still purebloods. You all remember that redhead man in the newspaper the other day?”

“Mr. Weasley?” Draco said disgustingly.

“Yes. His family loves Muggles. That’s why he’s poor. He loves Muggles! Uh! Those non-wizard folk. Disgusting creatures, those Muggles, the lot of them!”

“But, Uncle,” argued Raine. “They don't sound that bad in books and...”

“You do not trust me, do you Raine?”

“But in the books...”

“Remember, not all books tell the truth. Books can be slanderous...”

“Libel is written, Uncle Lucius,” debated Raine. “Slander is spoken lies. But there is nothing wrong with Muggle-borns! I’ve seen them in the stores in Diagon and I couldn’t see any obvious difference between them and us. If they can do magic, then are almost like us.”

Lucius had kneeled on Raine’s table and held her hands in between his palms.

“Dear girl, have you not been listening to a single word I said all these years? Muggle-born witches and wizards have only been graced with magic by some divine intervention. They may look the same as us, but deep inside… they are nothing like us. Do not be fooled! Listen to what I am trying to tell you. Muggles are lower than dirt. Their blood is dirtier than the stuff you find in the toilet.” This made Tali warble as the boys blurted something that sounded like ‘Yuck.’

“Lord Voldemort is the best thing that has ever happened in the Wizarding World,” continued Lucius. “If the Dark Lord had not created the Death Eaters, everything you ever know would never have existed. If it weren’t for him, you would be living in a shack like the Weasleys. You would be wearing rags instead of the finest silk, velvet and the other rich material that covers your skin from the harsh elements. You would be scrounging for food instead of eating delectable dishes off porcelain using gold utensils.

“You would have no dignity, no pride to raise your head up high. And do you wanna know why? Because those Muggle-borns would’ve taken my job in the Ministry and jobs everywhere else in the Wizarding world. We would have no money. And you know what else? The Muggle-borns would be controlling us instead of us controlling them! You tell me how bad that sounds. That is wrong. I want you all to imagine this: A Mudblood telling you what to do, ordering you around as if you are their slave. I don’t know about you but it almost makes me vomit at the thought. And all of you, purebloods- the purest of our kind - will be kneeling to the likes of those… Creatures! The horror! That is just plain shameful!!! But thanks to Lord Voldemort, many Muggle-borns and useless purebloods were killed. And soon, purebloods will reign on the Wizarding world right beside Lord Voldemort.”

Riley lowered his head but his eyes were still fixed on his uncle’s. “I am sorry, for what I said about Lord Voldemort,” apologized Riley. “Uncle Lucius, I didn’t mean it…”

“Lucky that Master can be forgiving sometimes,” said Lucius. “Never blame the Master. If you’re going to be mad at somebody, blame the Muggles. They take everything that belongs to the purebloods. They litter our streets, own the lands that were meant to be ours… They are ruining our way of life.” Lucius then turned to the other children. “Would you let them to ruin your way of life?”

“No, Uncle Lucius” said the four children.

“So what should we do then huh?” Lucius continued. “It’s either us- the Purebloods of course- or them, the Mudbloods. What should we chose, children? Who do you think is to go?”

“They do,” they all answered so surely.

“Good.” Lucius stood up. “I hope you all keep this information inside your heads. Always remember everything I said. Your fathers and I had to do what we did. We had to punish you so you would learn to be loyal to us and the Master. Now that Lord Voldemort had given you four the power to do his bidding, you will learn it and use it wisely. But we’ll discuss about that soon. Now, let us have dinner at my mansion. What do you all say?”