Chapter 57
LILY EVANS
"You are a parselmouth," James asked in surprise, as the healers left after tending to them, and Lily had no answer to give to him as she stared at the giant frozen body of the basilisk she had just put to sleep.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, and she did not know what to say.
"I didn't know myself until today," she relented as James's eyes widened.
"Well, that was quite a surprise," he added. Hogsmeade had been devastated by the attack, and buildings and establishments that had stood for some thousand years were now all gone. The inhabitants and the Aurors all worked to repair as much of the damage as they could, but she wondered if things would ever be the same after today.
"Did you know?" James turned towards Alder, who sat beside them, and he shook his head.
"This was a revelation for me as well," he answered, and James frowned.
"Since you two are twins, does that mean you are a parselmouth as well?" he asked, and Alder shook his head.
"I am not," but there was a strange expression on his face, and Lily had long gotten used to it. He was hiding something, or at least he was not being as forthcoming as he could be.
"I am grateful that she is though. Because otherwise, we would be facing an absolute disaster," and she wondered if that had been Voldemort's intention, and he had attacked the town in full force, but his target had been obvious enough.
The attack was a retaliation against Alder for the attacks he had committed, and as she gazed at the carnage around her, she was reminded of his words.
The people in this town had done nothing to draw Voldemort's ire. Most of them were purebloods and had served students from the school for decades, if not centuries.
Hogsmeade was amongst the oldest wizarding settlements in the country, and yet he had tried to destroy it all on a whim. They did not know how many were dead yet, but there were casualties.
She had seen the Aurors putting away bodies and could still hear the sound of crying and wails in the distance, and the death toll would have been way higher if Alder had not stepped up when he had.
If she had not discovered her hidden talents, the basilisk could have torn through the entire village, and then moved towards Hogwarts, or worse yet, the Muggle villages close by.
Defeating a basilisk was no easy feat, and they were one of the most dangerous magical creatures alive, and their breeding was a criminal act, and would land them straight into Azkaban.
There were stories that it had taken a gathering of some three hundred wizards to put down Herpo's basilisk, and the basilisk infront of them was no different in size.
"Where did it even come from?" James asked, for basilisk were notoriously slow to grow, and Herpo's snake had taken some hundred years to grow to its size, and yet Voldemort was barely fifty years old.
"The size doesn't make sense," James added, and she remembered Voldemort's words.
"He called it Salazar's legacy," she mentioned, and James's head snapped towards her.
"Salazar, as in Salazar Slytherin?" he gasped, and she knew of no other person by that name.
"I always knew that he was a git," James added in a whisper, and she did not have the energy to fault him anymore.
"Look, it's Bones," and she looked up and saw their former senior walking towards them, and she was surprised by her presence.
"What were you doing here, Bones?" Alder asked, and she was reminded that they were both colleagues now.
"I came to get you, you idiot," she admonished, and she had bandages covering her head, and her glasses still had a crack in them.
"You didn't need to," Alder added, and she kicked his knee.
"Of course I did, you fool. The whole ceremony had been arranged for you, and you decided to ditch us at the last moment," and Alder rubbed his knee.
"I told you that I would be back," Alder defended himself, and she shook her head.
"The Minister insisted," she added.
"Still, it is good that I came when I did," and her tone turned somber as she looked at James.
"Yes, because otherwise I would be dead," and then she took out a paper and gave it to Alder.
"This is the initial report," and she spoke coldly now.
"It seems like Voldemort grew rather frustrated for some reason and unleashed the Basilisk without caring for his own followers," and she saw her brother skim through the report before his eyes suddenly widened.
"She is alive," he gasped, as suddenly his head snapped up towards Bones.
"Supposedly. We thought she was dead, but on closer inspection, we found out that she had been petrified for some reason. They are taking her to St. Mungo's as we speak," and she frowned.
"Who?" she asked, and she saw her face contort with rage as he answered,
"Bellatrix Lestrange," and she felt the temperature around them drop considerably, as a thick white mist came out of her brother's mouth.
And no one said anything about that. What was even there to say about that? And silence hung in the air until a thought occurred to her mind.
"You were supposed to be at the ceremony today, right?" she asked, and her brother nodded.
"Yes," and she had agreed to meet him only yesterday.
"Then how did Voldemort come to know about you visiting Hogsmeade to meet me?" The question filled the air with silence as Alder rubbed his chin.
"I only told Bones about the meeting," but she was not a traitor.
"I told no one," she added, and Bones was quick to add.
"Neither did I. I didn't even mention it to my brother," she added, and then they all turned towards James.
"I told no one as well. Both Sirius and Remus are out of the campus, and I only mentioned it to Peter last night.....," and his face paled as he finished his own sentence, as the realization dawned on him.
Lily felt her breath quicken as the realization dawned on her.
"No," James gasped and frowned, refusing to believe the insinuation.
"It can't be," he added, and yet Alder shook his head.
"I had my suspicions already, but this just confirms it," and he rose from the ground as he turned towards the school.
"Peter Pettigrew is a traitor...."
0000
MILICENT BAGNOLD
It was supposed to be a day of celebration. A day of victory, but in the end, such days were hard to come by in times of war. They had expected the Dark Lord to retaliate, and yet none could have predicted the series of events that had unfolded today.
In the end, the Ministry was able to postpone its press conference, and now the Papers would be filled once more with the news of tragedy and death.
Fourteen were dead, and a dozen were injured during the attack, and it would take years to shed the pain of the devastation that had struck them today, but it was not all bad news.
If anything, today's attack was a sign that the tides of war were shifting. That the Dark Lord had become frustrated, for there could be no other explanation for the carnage he had unleashed today.
It was well known that the man cared little for his followers, and yet the sheer disinterest that he had shown in the well-being of his own men was a symbol of his frustrations and cruelty.
If Alders' attacks had made the people hesitant in joining the Dark Lord, then the tragedy of today would incite an exodus from his ranks. They had captured some half a dozen of his Death Eaters, and tomorrow's papers would be filled with their testimonies on how the Dark Lord had abandoned them and left them to die.
She had no doubt that Voldemort had hoped to cause havoc using the basilisk. The creature's purpose had been to destroy Hogsmeade, kill thousands, and, if possible, cause enough mayhem that it might entirely cripple their society.
It was not impossible really, for a Basilisk was as dangerous as Magical creatures got. If the beast had managed to escape towards the few Muggle Villages North of Hogsmeade, then the very existence of their society would have been put into jeopardy.w
Still, the Dark Lord's plan had been foiled, and now for the first time she could feel the web unraveling. The war, which had seemed never-ending at first, she could feel it reaching its climax.
She had no proof of this yet, but she had a hunch that they were reaching the conclusion of this saga, and Bagnold was not the kind to have false hunches.
"Keep her name out of the Papers," and the entire day had been spent doing damage control, and she had yet kept the news of the attack out of the Papers, but they could not keep the thing out of the news for much longer.
The public would demand answers.
"What?" Alder had been waiting for her at her office, the second she had walked in.
"Lily. I want you to keep her name out of the Papers," and she had yet to compile a report.
Still, Bagnold had been equally surprised by the prowess of Alder's sister. The ability to talk to snakes was ancient and was deemed to be a symbol of pure blood pedigree. The last known family to wield this talent was the Gaunts, believed to be Voldemort's maternal kin.
The House of Gaunts claimed direct descent from the House of Slytherin, and yet now they were all gone. Dead, and the only Parselmouth alive until today was none other than the Dark Lord himself.
Well, that was until today.
For now, they had a parselmouth of their own.
"It won't be possible," she answered, and even if she were to do such a thing, too many people already knew about the existence of a second parselmouth.
"Too many people already know that there was a second parselmouth there," and he nodded.
"That is why I want you to use my name," he suggested, and now she was interested.
"But you are not a parselmouth?" she confirmed, and he shook his head.
"I am not, but I am a known entity. Voldemort already hates me, and I do not want to put my sister's life in any more danger than it already is," and there was an advantage to it.
"The lie won't hold for long," she added, and he must know that.
"I know," he answered as he looked her in the eye.
"But I believe that the war won't last for much longer either," and so she was not the only one with that hunch.
"How?" she asked.
"I won't scurry away from the blame. I know I bear some blame for the attack that happened today, and while we have suffered much today, I also believe that we have gained quite a bit as well," Alder added quietly, and she did not really blame him for the attack.
"We have some of Voldemort's closest confidants within our grasp, and not just that, I can speak with absolute authority that hundreds are fleeing from his ranks as we speak after the day's debacle," and that was bound to happen.
Fear could only leash people for so long.
"They are afraid of him," and the boy shrugged.
"Yes, and so Voldemort will have to become even more brash if he wishes to sustain himself, and so we use this time to draw him in. We set a trap, and we end this damned thing," he answered resolutely, and the idea seemed solid enough, but they needed a concrete plan if they were to pull this off.
"How?" she asked, knowing well that he was not the kind to make grand statements.
"Professor Dumbledore believes that Voldemort has some treasures. Some objects that are very dear to him. He passed them on to his most loyal followers to protect them," and now she was listening intently.
"What kind of objects?" and there seemed to be a story here that was not being told.
"He will tell you himself," he added, and she narrowed her eyes but did not argue.
"And I know for a fact that one of them is with Bellatrix Lestrange," and it clicked together at once.
"You mean to use that object to trap the Dark Lord," she realized, and he nodded.
"Yes...."
0000