The Dead Stay Silent

Rose opened her eyes to find a bright blue sky overhead.

"What happened?" Rose asked, sitting up.

She was in a forest clearing, although trees hung over the sides. The ground dipped down into a bowl, and there were rocks arranged in a pattern around her.

"Hi, Rose," a familiar voice said.

Rose turned to face Carolina. Her dark orange hair was pulled into a bun, leaving her bright green eyes to shine at Rose.

"Carrie, what are you doing here?" Rose asked. "Where am I? What happened?"

"Same old Rose," Carolina said, smiling. "You just have to know everything, just like your brother."

It frustrated Rose to be treated like a child by her friends, but she couldn't stay mad at Carolina.

"You're in Falling Grove," Carolina said. "The sanctuary at the Sunstar Monastery."

"What am I doing here?" Rose asked, rubbing her head.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Rose frowned as she concentrated on the past few hours.

"I was fighting a bloodfire ooze swarm in the Chamber of Secrets, then… then I died. It killed me."

She looked to Carolina for confirmation, or better yet, some indication that it was all just a dream.

"You're dead, Rose," Carolina said. "This is just a hallucination."

Rose looked around the clearing again.

"Huh. This didn't happen last time."

Carolina smiled, and the whole world got a little better.

"You weren't a Chosen of EL last time," she said.

"So it is him," Rose said.

"He's probably putting this vision into your head."

"Why?"

"Probably to make some point," Carolina said. "He does that."

Rose looked up to the sky, then back at Carolina. It was so peaceful and bright compared to the Chamber of Secrets.

"What's wrong?" Carolina asked.

"I already saved Moon," Rose said. "If I go back, I'll just put them in more danger. Maybe I should just stay here."

"You don't mean that."

"I do! I've always loved Falling Grove. The countryside's so beautiful. It's calm and peaceful, away from the big cities like Sentrum."

"You won't stay here," Carolina said. "It'll all go black."

"I guess I'd never see Shadow again," Rose said.

"No one would ever know what happened to you. You'd just vanish. Hermione couldn't tell Sk'lar."

Rose tilted her head.

"You never had a choice, did you?"

"You do."

"That's because unlike you, I'm prepared!"

Rose smirked, but stopped when she saw how downcast Carolina was.

"I'm sorry," Rose said.

"I'm the one that's sorry," Carolina said. "You know I didn't mean to, right?"

"I forgave you a long time ago, Carrie," Rose said. "You know I can't stay mad at you! You're too pretty!"

Carolina gave the half smile she always gave when she was trying to convince people everything was alright.

"Contingent revivify!" Rose declared when Carolina didn't ask what she had. "I come back to life the instant I die!" She grinned. "That rhymed!"

"You are prepared."

"I try to be," Rose said. "It only works once, though, and I'm restored to -1 hit points. So long as I can act fast, I'll be fine."

Carolina smiled warmly, reminding Rose just how much she missed that smile.

"That's our girl."

Carolina hugged Rose.

"Go save the day again," she said. "Make us proud."

Rose smiled and returned the hug.

"I will."

Rose gasped for breath as life and colour returned to her body. One by one, her spells reactivated. The last time that Rose died, she learned that spells only fade if the caster's soul leaves their body. Revivify stopped a soul from leaving its body, immediately restoring life to the target, and thus prevented her persisted spells from fading.

<I'm alright, Ref,> she told him when she heard his voice in her head. <I'm alright, but next time I hallucinate, I want to see my parents.>

"Fascinating," Sally said. "I knew you could restore life to the deceased, but I didn't realize that you could even restore your own life."

"Yup!" Rose said, picking herself up off the ground. "That's not all I can do."

So long as I can act fast, I'll be fine.

Rose hadn't always been one for thinking anything through. She found it boring, preferring to act rather than discuss what to do. That had changed when she met Shadow. The Halfling was clever, had contingencies for her contingencies, and was always at least one step ahead of everyone else.

Rose was envious of the trait, and in order to impress Shadow, she'd begun to take the time to think her plans through to the end. Unfortunately for her, this didn't last long, as she often got bored and wandered off to do something else.

Rose's plan for when she died was one of the plans she had thought through to the end. She knew exactly how to restore her health and prevent any further damage. In this case, she knew exactly how to stop Cruentius from getting back up.

"But how many times will that work?" Sally asked. "Will it keep you alive forever?"

"Long enough to stop you," Rose replied.

With a standard action, Rose activated her belt and restored her health back above dying. Then, she activated her belt again to give herself an additional standard action for the round. Finally, she used her new action to activate Serendipity.

"Ghostform."

Ghostform was an eighth-level spell that did exactly what it sounded like: It turned the caster into a ghost. That meant that no matter how hard Sally tried, his pet couldn't touch her.

Rose didn't typically use ghostform because unlike her uncle and brother, she made a habit of grappling, pinning, and tripping her opponents. While it made her virtually indestructible in her new world, Ghostform didn't allow her to interact with other people, so she saved it for emergencies.

Cruentius solidified one of its tentacles into a blade of blood, then struck at Rose with the scythe-like extension of itself. Unlike the previous assault on Rose, its blade phased straight through her.

"What's the matter?" Rose asked condescendingly. "Can't touch incorporeal?"

Cruentius spun around, condensing more of its tentacles into deadly scythes, but each one passed through its prey, leaving her unscathed.

Three charges, Rose thought as she ignored the monster attempting to tear her to shreds. Four shots, each one deals 6d6 damage. That's 72d6 of damage.

Rose grabbed her picnic basket again, as Cruentius was helpless to stop her. From the picnic basket, Rose drew a long, black metal tube. At over three feet long, it approached Rose in length.

"This time, when I knock you down," Rose declared. "I'm gonna make sure you don't get back up!"

The Dark Meteor was another one of Rose's masterpieces, even though she rarely had an occasion to use him. This, however, was a perfect time put him to good use. At first glance, he was a simple, three-charges-per-day meteor swarm item. Under the surface, Rose had created an additional function. Once per month, Rose could burn all three charges for the next month to fire all three uses of meteor swarm simultaneously. It had taken Rose months to perfect it, even though her uncle repeatedly told her it wouldn't be worth it. Her reward had been seeing 12 meteors focus on a single target, which to her, was worth it.

"Nyr doch!" she screamed as the weapon glowed red.

One by one, twelve meteors fired out of the tube in quick succession, spreading out around Rose before flying straight at her opponent. Each two-foot diameter ball left a trail of sparks in its wake as it streaked towards the blob of blood.

The first meteor made contact with the stone floor, covering both Rose and Cruentius in the resulting explosion. Stray blood flew off Cruentius as the next meteor struck the ceiling above it, ripping chunks of stone from their resting places.

Each explosion whipped Rose's cloak was whipped around, but Rose herself stood her ground, still holding the Dark Meteor as she watched each meteor strike its intended target. Explosion after explosion rocked the entire chamber, and Rose briefly wondered if anyone could feel or hear them upstairs. More importantly, she wondered if mixed in with the sounds of the explosions were sounds of Cruentius crying out in pain. She hadn't heard the creature make much sound until now, other than the squishy sounds of blood moving about, but there was a high-pitched sound that didn't quite sound like a direct result of an explosion. In fact, it sounded more like a scream of agony.

After six adrenaline-filled seconds, the explosions subsided, and the dust began to settle. As debris cleared from her line of sight, Rose saw that Cruentius still stood, but it was melting into the ground. Slowly the creature disappeared into the crevices of the Chamber of Secrets, but still she held her weapon ready to attack it if this was yet another trick.

"Very good," Sally said after another minute had passed. "I'm impressed, Little Rosie. It seems that I have underestimated you."

"Great," Rose snapped. "Can I go now?"

"You may, but do remember, Little Rosie," Sally said as his guest began to leave, "I stay my hand because I prefer that people not know that I'm here. If people knew about me, then I would no longer have any reason to remain hidden."

Rose turned around, glaring at the statue of Salazar Slytherin. That question had crossed her mind more than once in the past few minutes as to how he had survived down here for so long. People in this world weren't that perceptive, otherwise they would've noticed the snake on the tap by now. If Sally just kept to himself, no one would notice him. With the curse on the Defence Against the Dark Arts professorship, no one was going to question why one of the professors disappeared now and then.

What about Cruentius? What was it? Some sort of homunculus? Each homunculus did require a drop of Rose's blood to make, so maybe it was simply one that needed much more blood. It wasn't like a water elemental that could be affected by Crimson Thorn, but more like a water elementite swarm, which was like a big water elemental made up of smaller water elementals.

Whatever it was, Rose was going to need to consult an expert if she was going to be ready for it the next time. If there was anyone that would know how to beat it, it would be her uncle. Sk'lar was clever, but he had few damaging spells in his spellbook, and the ones he did have only dealt damage incidentally, such as freezing fog. Whenever the Exalted went up against a swarm, Shadow was the one who typically defeated it with a necklace of fireballs or the like.

"Do you understand, Little Rosie?"

"What you're saying," Rose said, snapping out of her thoughts, "is that if I tell people about you, you'll come after them."

"It's your choice. Make sure it's a wise one."

Rose picked up the diary as she walked off. "I'll do that."

As she approached Lockhart, Rose's dress stitched itself back together, and the blood slid off her dress.

Rose glanced down at her now clean clothing, then turned back to the statue of Salazar Slytherin.

"Don't think this means I'm not still mad at you for killing me," Rose said.

Hearing no reply, she turned around and picked up Lockhart. Throwing the Defence Professor's unconscious body over her shoulder, she took one last look around the Chamber of Secrets before expending another charge to leave the forsaken place.

"I think that went well," Sally said as he watched the girl vanish.

Poppy was busy tending to her patients when a flurry of petals appeared in the Hospital Wing. Minerva had easily repaired the beds the Basilisk smashed, and Poppy had seen that Potter, Longbottom, and Lovegood all received beds.

After the Ravenclaw had woken up, she quickly fell back asleep. She was tired, and Poppy didn't blame her. With everything that had happened that day, Poppy was ready to collapse.

Longbottom had been the worst off of all of them, suffering a concussion and several broken bones from when the Basilisk hurled him into the wall. Nothing Poppy couldn't fix, of course.

Potter had a few cracked ribs, but nothing severe. It had only taken the Mediwitch a few moments to fix him, but he was still unconscious.

Not a minute after she had finished with her last patient, Rose Peta-Lorrum appeared out of the petals. Over her shoulder was the unconscious body of Gilderoy Lockhart. At least, Minerva was hoping he was unconscious. There was a bruise on his forehead, and some blood trickled out of it.

In the girl's other hand was a book with a large hole in it. It appeared as though the hole had been ripped through the book, rather than burned or stabbed as she would have expected. It was almost as if a large pillar of stone had been thrust into it at a high velocity. Knowing Peta-Lorrum, it wouldn't have surprised Minerva in the slightest if that were the case.

"Sorry I took so long," the girl said, tossing Lockhart's body onto the hard stone floor rather than one of the soft beds. "This one delayed me."

As the Defence Professor landed, Minerva caught sight of the bandoleer around the girl's torso. The Transfiguration Professor quickly counted six dark red orbs attached to it.

As Poppy moved the man to a bed, Minerva held up her hand to silence the other students.

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum, please explain exactly what happened in the Chamber of Secrets."

"On my way down there, I ran into Lockhart, who had worked out that Fred and George charmed his fan mail to replicate itself," Rose began, grinning at the thought of Lockhart realizing what had happened. "He insisted on following me, and I thought I might as well let him. He was a little hesitant to follow me into the toilet, though."

"Since when do you need to use the toilet?" Hermione asked.

"I don't," Rose replied, "but there's a reason that Myrtle stays in the same bathroom in which the Basilisk killed her."

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum, do not talk in riddles," Minerva said firmly.

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Myrtle's bathroom," Peta-Lorrum said. "You'll see where it is. I didn't want to waste time trying to figure out how to open it, so I broke it down."

"Alright," Minerva said, still remaining calm. She knew that if she exploded at the girl, she would become more difficult to handle, so Minerva decided that a placid manner was the correct way to handle this. "Next question: Why is Lockhart unconscious?"

"After sorting out the entire mess with the Heir of Slytherin, Lockhart decided he was going to take all the credit for the defeat, despite not having done anything. The coward stayed back and let me do all the dirty work. Afterward, he tied me up, then tried to wipe my memory. Unfortunately for him, mind blank stopped him, and I knocked him unconscious."

Minerva looked down at the unconscious professor, then back to the conscious student.

"Do you know why he chose that particular tactic?" Minerva asked, her calm voice concealing her inner fury. For what might have been the first time that day, the target of her anger wasn't Peta-Lorrum. What was that man thinking?! Minerva didn't care how unprofessional he was, under no circumstances should a teacher attempt to wipe the memory of a student! Even if said student was Rose Peta-Lorrum! Not to mention that memory charms were illegal to use without ministry consent!

"From what I've worked out, Locky here has been stealing the stories of other adventurers and claiming them to be his own. He finds them, interviews them, then once he's got all he needs, he wipes their memories."

"That's horrible!" Granger shouted, clapping her hands over her mouth the second she did. "Sorry, Professor," she mumbled through her hands.

"I won't hold it against you, Ms. Granger," Minerva said, still remaining calm. "Well, this being the case, I do believe we are in need of a new Defence Professor." Minerva rolled her eyes as Peta-Lorrum's hand went up. "No, not you, Ms. Peta-Lorrum."

"Aw, but I'd be so good at it!" Peta-Lorrum whined. "I've already beaten the last two! How many more of them do I need to defeat before I can have the job?"

Minerva glared at her.

"Peta-Lorrum, now–"

"Sorry, Professor."

Saying that Minerva was shocked was an understatement; She was almost without words. Peta-Lorrum had just apologized for something. What was going on?

"Apology accepted, Ms. Peta-Lorrum," Minerva said. "For right now, I'm more concerned about you finishing your story."

"Okay!" she exclaimed, beaming. "Anyway, he tied me up and tried to wipe my memory, but mind blank stopped him in his tracks." She grinned. "The look on his face when he realized that it didn't work was priceless! And then when I climbed out of the ropes without a problem! Ha!"

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum, we have already dealt with a basilisk today. My patience is growing thin."

"Right." She held up the book in her hand. "Ginny, Sally-Anne, Hermione, this look familiar to any of you?"

"Is that–?" Granger asked. "It can't be!"

"It looks just like mine!" Ms. Weasley exclaimed.

"It is yours," sh said. "I traced its chain of owners back a few steps. From what I can gather, Draco dropped it in your cauldron when he and Goldilocks bothered us that day over the summer. I had already sort of worked that part out, but I didn't understand why at the time. Now I do. As part of one of their pranks, Fred and George grabbed it and brought it to where they knew a castle alteration was about to occur. They know the castle pretty well, so that wasn't a challenge for them. Then they found Luna, and passed it off to her."

"That's why that wall was there!" Granger exclaimed.

"Is there a purpose to this?" Minerva asked.

"I'm getting to it," Peta-Lorrum replied. "I promise this is important. The Twins tried to retrieve it later, but couldn't get it back from Luna. They would've tried to take it from her, but they knew I would find out almost immediately, and we've been under a truce this year."

"Why?" the Weasley Girl asked.

"Because otherwise we're going to destroy the castle or ourselves," Peta-Lorrum replied simply, evidently more content with the answer than Minerva thought she should've been. "Anyway, as Luna is Under My Protection, they couldn't interfere, so they created a copy of the book to return to their sister so she wouldn't find out that it was them that took it."

"And how exactly is this important, Ms. Peta-Lorrum?"

"It's important because this is the Heir of Slytherin," she said, holding up the destroyed book. "Or at least, it was the Heir of Slytherin."

"How is that the Heir of Slytherin?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"It took over Luna's mind," Peta-Lorrum said. "I think there was a spirit trapped in it. The spirit of one Thomas Marvolo Riddle."

Minerva's eyes grew wide. Even if the children didn't know that name, she did.

"Who?" the Weasleys asked.

"Why does that name ring a bell?" Perks muttered.

"Voldie," Peta-Lorrum replied. "A copy of Voldemort was– Would you all quit it? It's just a name!" Seeing that the purebloods had relaxed, Rose continued her story. "–was trapped inside this book. Or stored inside it, more likely. It convinced Luna that she was talking to the spirit of her mother in order to manipulate her into doing his bidding. Towards the end, she probably didn't even have control over herself." She glared right at Minerva. "Understand?"

"Peta-Lorrum, remember your place," Minerva said. "I understand your point. Ms. Lovegood will not be punished. After she was unable to awaken from the state she was in earlier, I had no doubt that she was not behind the attacks. Are you sure that Riddle is gone?"

"Positive," Rose replied, glad that her friend wouldn't be punished for something that wasn't her fault. "Echoing cry of 'No!' and all." She grinned. "That was classic. Blew a hole straight through it."

"If that's all you had to do, then why did it take you so long?" Hermione asked.

"It took me a while to figure out the book was important," Rose said. "Well, rather that he was still attached to the book. Until then, I was just wailing on him a bunch."

Rose looked at the dead basilisk on the floor. "So what have you lot been up to?"

"We blew up the Basilisk!" Ginny exclaimed. "It was brilliant!"

Rose grinned. "Dreda drisi gil."

"What's that mean?" Hermione asked.

"Literally translates as 'Maidens love fire'," Rose replied.

"Alright, that makes sense."

As each of her friends filled her in on the events of the past hour, Rose continued to grin with pride. Each of her friends had played a part in the defeat of the Basilisk, and for the most part, without her help. Rose didn't know if she'd always be on the Rowling Plane, but she knew that whatever happened, her friends would be able to manage without her.

"Why didn't you respond to my messages?" Hermione asked when they were finished.

"I didn't have the chance," Rose lied. "You were alright, though. Right?"

"I guess," Hermione said. "Next time, can't you at least say something to let me know you're alright?"

"I will," Rose said, wondering how Sally had managed to block her telepathic network. Was the Chamber of Secrets warded? How was it being warded?

"Before we get too far ahead of ourselves," Professor McGonagall said. "We'll need to send word to the Ministry requesting the reinstatement of Professor Dumbledore. If we act quickly, we would still be able to get him restored without any issues."

Rose looked at her, then at the Basilisk. "I've got an idea!"

Cornelius Fudge was filling out paperwork to have Hogwarts evacuated. It was finally going as planned. If he could just get Dumbledore out of that school permanently, he'd never have to worry about that stupid old man again.

Dumbledore had always been a threat to his power. The man denied it, but that was to be expected. People didn't admit when they were trying to take your job, they just did it. It was a good thing that there were people like Lucius Malfoy around him that he could trust.

Everything was finally going his way.

THUD!

Cornelius looked up to see a large snake's head on his desk. Its eyes had been gouged out, and it was severely burned, but it was certainly a snake's head.

"Fixed it!" a familiar girl with dark red hair exclaimed. "May we please have Professor Dumbledore back now?"

Cornelius stared in slack-jawed disbelief at the head on his desk. His eyes slowly moved his head to stare at the girl that was holding one end of what he could only assume was the Basilisk's head and saw that she was covered in blood.

"Would you like me to repeat the question?" the girl asked, an innocent smile on her face.

"How did you get in here, little girl?" he asked.

"It's Rose or Ms. Peta-Lorrum," she replied. "And I used teleport!"

"Well… Ms. Peta-Lorrum, you see, it's not so easy to restore Dumbledore to his position," Cornelius replied, sliding his finger over a rune hidden under his desk.

The rune was connected to a twin in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, where Amelia Bones would see it. Once she did, she would come running to his aide and remove this girl from the premises.

Had the Minister of Magic been more perceptive, he would've noticed the girl's eyes dart to where his finger was.

"Of course it is!" she exclaimed. "You just need to fill out paperwork, right?"

"It's more complicated than that," Cornelius said, confident in his ability to stall for time.

"Explain it, then," the girl said happily.

"You see, first I'd have to fill out the requisition forms to have him reinstated," Cornelius began. "Then the Wizengamot and Hogwarts Board of Directors need to approve it, and the former is not currently in session."

"Then call them," the girl replied. "You lot have got your means of communications. Portraits, usually."

"For something such as this, we'd use the post," Cornelius said patiently. He had the time to kill, and Bones was sure to be barging through his door any second. "It's slower, but more reliable."

"You lot need farspeaking amulets," the girl said. "Or sending stones at least."

Cornelius had no idea what those were, but to his relief, he no longer needed to concern himself with the little girl. His office doors swung open to reveal Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and one of the scariest people Cornelius had ever met.

"What's the problem?!" she barked, three Aurors trailing behind her.

Amelia instantly took in the situation in front of her. Behind his desk was the Minister of Magic, and on top of it was… a basilisk's head. What was that doing there? More importantly, who was the little girl covered in blood?

In the time Amelia was thinking of all of this, she had drawn her wand and shot a stunner at the little girl. One of the many rules by which Amelia lived was "You can never be too careful."

Unfortunately for Amelia, the girl winked out of existence just as her spell would've struck her, striking the wall behind her instead.

Being the survivor (pronounced "coward") he was, Cornelius hid under his desk to avoid being hit by a stray spell.

The girl whirled around to face Amelia, then threw her arms up. Amelia took in the girl's clothing, apart from the cloak she was wearing, and saw a Hogwarts crest attached to the girl's belt.

"I'm not here to fight. I'm just here for Professor Dumbledore."

"You'll understand if I don't believe you," Amelia replied, keeping her wand leveled at the little girl.

"I do," the girl said. "I wouldn't believe me either." She slowly put her arms down. "Please stop pointing your wand at me."

"Why?"

"Because she's honestly not here to harm you," came a wise voice from behind her.

"Dumbledore?!" Cornelius exclaimed, sticking his head out from behind his desk. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was just taking a stroll, and noticed Madame Bones running somewhere in quite a hurry, so I thought I'd go see what the trouble was." He wedged his way into the room, putting himself right between Bones and the little girl. "Hello, Rose."

"Salutations!" Rose exclaimed.

"I see you've handled the Basilisk," he said.

"Nope!" she exclaimed. "Professor McGonagall and my friends did!"

"Well, that's certainly a change of pace," Albus said. "I look forward to hearing about it." He turned to the Minister of Magic. "I believe you can come out now, Cornelius. Nothing to worry about."

"Albus, what is going on here?!" Cornelius demanded.

"I'm quite interested myself," Amelia added, putting her wand back where she hid it. She knew full well that there was no point in keeping her wand trained on the girl. By the time she thought about firing another spell at her, Dumbledore would have seen to it that her wand was halfway across the room.

"It seems that the Basilisk has been dealt with," Albus said simply. "And the Heir of Slytherin?"

Rose held up a black book with a gaping hole in the middle. "Dead."

Amelia turned to one of her Aurors. "Shacklebolt, you're our Dumbledore expert. Does that make sense to you?"

"I can't say that it does," replied Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Rose," Professor Dumbledore said.

"This book contained the memory and/or soul of one Thomas Marvolo Riddle. He took over a student and used them to open the Chamber of Secrets. It was through this student that Tommy controlled the Basilisk."

It can't be, Albus thought. He had long suspected that Tom had done the unspeakable and splintered his own soul. Was this one of the fragments? Rather, had it been one of the fragments?

"Dumbledore, did she just say–"

"Voldemort," Albus said. "I do believe she did, Madame Bones."

When addressing someone, Albus always attempted to use that person's preferred alias. In the case of Amelia Bones, it was "Madame Bones" or "Ma'am".

"What is going on here?" said a new voice.

Everyone turned to see the newcomer, although each of them recognized the voice of Lucius Malfoy. By his side was a house-elf with bruises and scars covering his body.

<Ref, I need his thoughts. Now.>

<He recognizes the book,> Reflectesalon told her. <He's wondering why you have it, and not the blonde girl that had it before. Now he's wondering why there's a snake head on the Minister's desk.>

<Perfect,> Rose replied. "Salutations, Goldilocks! Just the person I wanted to see!" She held up the book. "I believe this is yours!"

"Why do you think that?" he asked. "Dumbledore, you should control your students."

"You had Draco dump it in Ginny's cauldron in Diagon Alley over the summer," Rose explained. "While I was pestering you, Draco was harassing Ginny. He used a Sleight of Hand check to dump it in her cauldron without anyone noticing."

"That's preposterous."

"You're 38, right?" she asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I traced the owners of this book back quite a ways after my friend showed it to me a few months ago," the girl replied. "Before me was the student that was being controlled by Tommy. Before that were the Twins, and before that was Ginny. Before her was a Human boy my age, who gained the book when his father gave it to him, and lost it when he dropped it in Ginny's cauldron. Before him was his father, who is Human, male, 38 years old, lawful evil, and relinquished it to his son."

Lucius calmly turned to Dumbledore. "Dumbledore, what have you been teaching your students?"

"To tell the truth," Albus replied calmly. "Rose, is that the truth?"

"So far as I know. Unfortunately, my gloves can't give me names, so I can't be certain of anything except that Dobby recognized the book as yours."

Rose wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been looking for it. It was the same twitch that Riddle had exhibited in the Chamber of Secrets. It was subtle, but it was there. Lucius had twitched ever so slightly, and it gave away his entire hand.

Unfortunately, Rose was sure no one else had noticed.

"Dobby couldn't have told you that," Lucius said. "He's not allowed to speak at the moment."

"One: That's mean. Two: He doesn't have to. Three: You should really ask yourself 'How does that girl know his name?' Four: Do you want your book back or not?"

"I already told you that book isn't mine."

"Okay," Rose replied, letting her hand drop at her side.

"Why don't we all get going?" Albus suggested, once again impressed by the girl's resourcefulness, but by neither her manners nor people skills. "Cornelius, farewell. Madame Bones, always a pleasure. Lucius, I look forward to seeing you again."

Rose curtsied to the Minister of Magic, then to the head of the DMLE and Lucius Malfoy. Picking up the Basilisk's head, she proceeded to follow the Headmaster out of the increasingly cramped office.