ch 30

The estate looked just as it did the last time I was here. Immaculate.

This time I did not have the luxury of enjoying the sights, because of the pace my significant other was walking. She looked elegant outward, but her swirling magic and aggravated pace told a different story. She was pissed.

I did my best to hide a smirk and stayed close on her heels.

The front doors to the Prewitt estate opened for us just as it did the first time we visited. Fleur didn't even pause to look at the small house elf that was about to greet us. I felt bad for the little thing, it had a look of hurt on its face, as if it had failed. It popped away, no doubt to go warn its master.

Fleur maneuvered through the halls of the house as if she had walked them her whole life. It took us no time to arrive in the same room as before. Once again Muriel sat there drinking tea, alone and waiting on us. The house elf was nowhere to be found.

It's fast.

Fleur moved to the table in front of Muriel, her right hand brought the papers she was holding in the air down on the table with a slam.

"Marriage clause? Must be British born!?"

Muriel didn't even flinch under her gaze and anger. The room started to heat up, as Fleur's affinity with fire made itself known.

Fleur automatically switched over to French and unleashed a tirade that I had no hope in deciphering, she was talking so fast. I let her get it out of her system and stood right behind her.

It was a good two minutes before I decided that enough was enough and I rested my hand on her shoulder. She didn't pay attention to me, she just kept going. I gave her a little squeeze, trying to get her to calm down so we could talk it out. Her mouth clamped closed and took a deep breath of air before turning around and sitting back down.

"Now, I'm glad we got that out of the way." I started.

I was interrupted by Muriel. "It was obviously a test darling." Murial said. Her face was as still as a stone, completely unfazed by Fleur. This fact solidified my decision even more.

She likes to play games with the ones closest to her.

"Yes, we realized this but even still. Had I signed the paper, it would have been legally, and magically, binding. Simply put, I can't trust you." I responded quickly. I didn't see a need to draw the conversation out.

"I met with you initially because I thought it would be a good way to get back at my parents. A middle finger pointed at them. I wanted to be unique, a name thought dead to the wizarding world, brought back to life by a wizard that will go down in history as one of the most powerful to ever live. That was all vanity." I told her, postering a bit.

"I realized that I don't need the Prewitt name to do that. Do you know where I have been living this whole time?" I asked curiously.

Her eyes flickered to Fleur, and back to me. It was a fair guess, and most of my nights have been spent in her bed. But all of my possessions still resided at 12 Grimmauld Pl. Most of my time was spent there, while Fleur went to work.

"No." I answered her unanswered guess. "Sirius Black decided to take me in, giving Harry and I everything he had to offer. Just as the Potter's did for him in his youth. He was actually the first person to offer me a place within his house, and I denied him. He must have seen it as a spit in the face, now that I think about it. Well I rectified that this morning. Once the proper paperwork is filed in the Ministry. I will be known as Ronald Billius Black."

I paused for a moment and drank in the sight of her shocked face. It made me extremely happy to be able to crack that stoney exterior.

"Ron Black doesn't really roll off of the tongue does it? Oh well, I'll get used to it." I turned around back towards the direction of the front door. Fleur linked her arm into mine as I passed her and we walked leisurely.

I couldn't help but leave her with a little comment on the way out. Same comment she mentioned about my mother.

"I always thought you were a bitch."

Duck. Move left. Deflect. Deflect the last spell back at him so he has to defend for a moment. Offense time.

I sent three spells, each with nasty effects that would leave anyone incapacitated or dead towards my oppenent quickly.

Flick. Flick. Keep the fireball contained until it reaches its destination. Boom.

The room brightened up significantly because of the contained explosion. Flame shot out from the point of Harry's shield but I knew he would be ok. My wand whipped up and a silver spear formed in the air by my head. Another flick and it shot towards Harry through the flames, I mentally commanded it to stop in the air.

The flames dissipated and revealed Harry standing there with his hands over his eyes. The silver spear I conjured sat in the air perfectly still, two feet away from Harry's chest. A killing blow.

"I win." I commented.

Harry's hands fell from his eyes and he blinked away the white spots in his vision. His eyes eventually fell on the silver spear hovering right in front of him. A smile split his face.

"Another surprise, another loss." Harry said when he noticed the spear. "You've chosen fire then?" Harry's eyes still blinked quickly, trying to adjust to the room now that the fire was gone.

I nodded and vanished the silver spear. "With runes, I don't need the defense of the earth, except for the killing curse of course. It gives me the ability to truly be offensive."

"Why not lightning then? You were making good progress with it." Harry asked.

I moved over to the desk in our dueling room and grabbed the glass of water waiting on me. "Too uncontrollable, and easily countered. Water can be devastating, but is too slow. Fire is perfect, there is a reason Voldemort and Dumbledore both use it offensively." I answered him.

It took me quite a while to give up my dreams of controlling lightning like Thor. The truth is that there is no controlling it, you just fire in a direction and hope it hits the target you want. Water needs a nearby source of water, and while I have perfected some really useful spells, it just isn't reliable enough. Earth could be the most devastating out of all, but it requires the casters attention the whole time, leaving them vulnerable to attacks. Fire allowed for a quick and devastating offense. Its defensive capabilities are non-existent, but with runes I could make up for that particular weakness.

Dumlbledore's specialty was transfiguration for just about anything. But he also wielded some very very esoteric magic that can only be learned from experience and access to the Headmaster's personal library. His defense was nearly impenetrable, and his offense came from multiple directions at once to overwhelm opponents. He truly was one of the best duelists of all time, if not the definitive best.

It must have been beautiful watching him duel in his prime. I pondered.

"Fiendfyre?" Harry asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"I haven't decided yet." I told him truthfully.

He nodded his head up and down. Neither of us knew if it was worth it. It was practically suicide if you let it get out of hand.

"What about 'The Mind Arts'?" Harry said.

He's really curious today isn't he? I thought to myself. He's just trying to better himself, prepare for what is to come.

I knew that I couldn't take all of the responsibility for his changes of the past few years but I did know that I had a huge impact. The fact that he has become more prepared, and wants to go further sent a jolt of pride and happiness through my body.

"I've tried calling it." I answered looking around the room we were in. The walls around us switched around and big windows appeared where stone used to be. I got up and walked over to it.

Hogwarts grounds peered up at me from my vantage point. My eyes naturally found the weeping willow tree standing by itself. I couldn't tell from this high up but I knew that it had grown more. I could make out a set of benches and seats huddled underneath the tree. There was now a path that led to the tree from the main path that led from Hogwarts to the Black Lake.

Dumbledore has been busy this summer. I thought. First the book, now this.

"Dumbledore must have either taken it out of Hogwarts, or found a way to hide it from the room." I told Harry.

Harry's face scrunched. "Why would he do that?"

I knew the answer and didn't see the harm in telling him. "He's probably doing it trying to protect us. He doesn't think we're ready for it most likely."

Harry grunted. "Well that will set us back, I know for a fact it would show us the ritual."

Harry was right, we were ready. Both of us had mastered occlumency and legilimency to the point where no wand was needed. In fact both of us planned on using the ritual as soon as we got back to the school. If it would truly allow me to cast two spells at once, that alone made it worth any risk.

"We'll be able to ask him tonight." I said.

"You think the feast is done?" Harry asked being impatient.

"Let's go find out."

The feast was actually over and most of the students were already in their dorms. It was perfect timing.

"It's good not to be stopped in the halls this late." Harry commented as we walked towards the Headmaster's office.

"Prefect and an apprentice." I confirmed. "Plus you're the boy-who-lived."

Harry rolled his eyes at me. He hates that title.

"Youngest wizard to graduate from Hogwarts in forty years. Six NEWT's and could test for the Runes NEWT and ace it." Harry shot back at me with a grin.

Now I was the one who was uncomfortable. I knew all of these things but hearing someone praise me for it was odd.

Harry's mention of runes reminded me of something. I reached into my robes, found the expanded pocket I was looking for, and pulled out a journal. I offered it to him.

"What is this?" Harry asked.

"I've created something that could make me very, very rich in the future." I told him nonchalantly.

"We're already very very rich. I'm a Potter and you're a Black." Harry corrected but opened the journal anyway. "Or did you forget about the trust fund you now have access to?"

I grimaced mentally as he reminded me of Sirius' latest present. "Don't remind me, I feel like a Malfoy just thinking about it."

I really didn't, it actually left me with a huge weight off of my shoulders. Now that I didn't have to worry about money, like ever ever, I could focus on things that made me happy, like teaching the next generation and inventing things that could propel magical society into the proper century.

I glanced at Harry and saw the reason he hadn't responded. He was currently reading the introduction to my new journal, and my revolutionary new invention.

"Mate, did you figure out a way to link multiple journals together." Harry asked.

"A little bit more impressive than that." I added on to his question. "Each page represents a 'contact', or a person, that you can add to the journal. There are only about five hundred pages, but I figure that would be enough for the average witch or wizard."

"What the… how?"

"Treacle tart." I said as we approached the gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office. "That will have to wait." I told him as I hopped on the magical equivalent of an escalator.

"Fine! But we are talking about this later." Harry replied as he stuffed the journal into his robes.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter."

Of course Dumbledore would mention my new name first. My mind supplied as we walked into his office.

Dumbledore was standing up close to his pensieve. That meant it was time for our lessons, and he was planning on using memories.

"Hello Headmaster." I greeted walking forward in his office. Fawkes gave us a little trill as from his perch. Harry didn't bother greeting him like I did, I think he was still shocked over the journal.

"I missed you both at the feast." Dumbledore said, still not looking at us. The glove on his hand caught my eye and I frowned at the reminder of him keeping things from us again.

"We visited the Room instead, Kreacher brought us food." Harry answered him finally joining the conversation.

"Ah yes. May I say that you made the right decision Ron, Sirius was very happy at your decision." Dumbledore said as he brought his twinkling eyes to our own.

"I shouldn't have taken so long." I responded how I really felt about the situation.

"And yet, he doesn't seem to care." Dumbledore said.

I didn't bother correcting him or adding to that part of the discussion, he was just trying to congratulate me.

"Now that is not why I called you here. I asked you two to join me so that we could begin learning about our enemy, we know as Voldemort." Dumbledore began. "I think it is very important to learn how he came to be the man he is today."

"Monster." Harry interrupted. "The monster he is today."

Dumbledore's eyes locked on to his and nodded. "As you say. You remember this from the tournament don't you?"

I had to wrack my brain to remember that Harry had used the pensieve once before during the tournament.

I think it showed him Karkaroff's trial?

"Yes, sir." Harry responded.

Dumbledore's eyes found mine and he didn't even have to ask the question. "Yes, I know how it works." I told him.

"Good, then that will save us some time." Dumbledore said nodding to us and turning back to the pensieve. "I have a memory I want you two to see, I collected it from an old colleague Bob Ogden, a former Head of the Department of Law Enforcement Patrol."

He motioned for us to come towards the pensieve. We approached and paused waiting for him to give us the go ahead. When he didn't say anything, Harry reached a hand out and touched the water in the pensieve, his body clenched up and didn't move signifying he was in the memory. My hand reached out and touched the liquid in the pensieve also.

I stepped into a smokey memory. I tried to look around but whoever Bob Ogden was wasn't a very good occlumens. The only parts of the memory that I could make out was in front of me, almost none of the surroundings were available.

"No, father! Not Tom!"

I turned to see a relatively attractive young woman with black hair and blue eyes. Merope Gaunt, Voldemort's mother.

Another man that resembled her turned her direction at her words.

"The muggle? You filthy…" The man jumped at her.

Suddenly I was back in Dumbledore's office. I frowned for a moment before I remembered that Harry had probably already watched most of the memory by the time I had joined.

"Morfin served three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, six months." Dumbledore commented as we gained our bearings.

"Tom?" Harry asked. "Sr."

"That's right, Merope Gaunt is Voldemort's mother. Tom was named after his father. I believe she fed Tom Riddle Sr a love potion, leading to the conception of our enemy. He eventually left her when she was pregnant and about to give birth. I suspect she stopped giving him the potion, or simply couldn't afford it anymore. The result is the same, Riddle Sr held no love for her or the child and he left." Dumbledore explained.

"The Gaunts are Voldemort's connection to Slytherin aren't they?" I spoke up, acting as if I didn't already know the information.

"Yes! Very good, Ron. The Gaunts can trace their family tree back to Slytherin himself. Good deduction." Dumbledore confirmed. "They were proud of their parseltongue abilities, leading them to partake in interbreeding for many generations. They were notoriously unhinged." Dumbledore continued to explain.

"You would think the pure-bloods would learn the same thing that no-mag's figured out hundreds of years ago. Inbreeding leads to instability, and madness, not including the deformities it can cause." I commented out loud.

"Have they really?" Dumbledore asked. "The ...non-magicals." He carefully avoided the word muggles.

Why? Does he think it'll offend me? I wondered. I just prefer the american slang.

"Yes, in fact it is illegal in the more advanced countries around the world. For sure in the States." I confirmed.

"Fascinating." Dumbledore said. "Anyway we have gotten off track. Why did I show you this?"

I didn't answer, although I thought I had a pretty good answer. I turned to Harry to see if he knew for sure. He shook his head no.

"His motivation for despising muggles?" I answered biting muggle out. "All because his father left his mother at a young age?"

"In part. But I admit you are working on half of the information. You see, sometime when Tom was in school he discovered his connection to the Gaunts. Tom, an orphan at the time, discovered that he had a family. I can only imagine what hope he must have discovered that day. He started asking around about them and learned of their values. Tom became proud of his parseltongue ability, and his bloodline. He began to imitate them, becoming a proper Slytherin." Dumbledore told us, saving us from having to answer the question.

Harry and I both waited for him to continue, he didn't. In fact, his hand reached out to grab the desk beside him, stopping his stumble. I moved forward quickly, grabbing under his arm and holding him up. I shuffled him around to sit down in his seat, worried the whole time.

Oh shit. I couldn't help but think about the situation.

"Are you alright, Headmaster?" I asked concerned.

He waved a hand at me. "Of course, my boy, just old age. I'm afraid we must cut the lesson short, I need more rest than I used to."

I frowned, taking a good look at the Headmaster. He looked thinner than normal, and the lines around his face looked more pronounced. My mind flashed back to him holding his wand against Voldemort and going toe to toe with him, eventually defeating him.

This is not the same man. Fear shot through my spine at the realization. My eyes dropped to the glove covering his hand.

Old age my ass, there has to be something else. I deduced.

"Are you dying?" The words just slipped out, without thought. I immediately regretted them.

"We are all dying, son." Dumbledore bulshitted me.

I met his eyes and somehow he had the nerve to summon a twinkle to torture me with. My face told him that I was not satisfied with that answer.

"I will not die tonight, Ron. I can not say whether or not I will survive this war. But I will not die tonight, we have too much to do before I can be afforded that luxury." Dumbledore elaborated for me.

The fear clenching my heart eased up a bit at his words and I slowly backed away. We kept our eyes locked and eventually the twinkle in his left. It was replaced by the look of a man on a mission. Suddenly I was looking at Dumbledore the battlemage, the conqueror.

I needed no more reassurance than that and I turned around to walk out the door.

Harry caught up to me in the hall.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with the hand he keeps covered up." I answered Harry as I stalked back to the ROR to sleep. Apprentices are given quarters of their own within the castle but I had denied mine, preferring the wonders of the Room. It was amazing sleeping under the stars, even if I wasn't really outside.

"Bloody hell." Harry said stressfully.

I turned to him. "What?"

"We can't lose Dumbledore." Harry admitted.

Fear's hand clenched my heart once again. "Yea I know mate, I know."

We fell into a comfortable silence as we walked up the stairs. It didn't last very long because Harry remembered the journal in his robes. He pulled it back out.

"So tell me about this." Harry told me.

I grabbed it from him and opened it. The front page was just a quick introduction that I wrote to explain the concept. I flipped the page once again and was brought to an instruction manual. I handed the journal back to Harry.

"Here's what you need to know. This journal is a runic masterpiece, no use in being humble about it." I started. "Turn to a blank page."

Harry obeyed and flipped the page. We both stopped as a set of stairs started to move around in front of us. I took a quick look to see where we needed to go.

"Now you see that diamond shape right there in the middle of the page?" I asked him. At his nod I snatched the journal from him again. I closed it and turned it sideways so that he could see the spine of the journal.

Towards the top of the spine sat the same diamond symbol that was on the page earlier. "This …" I said, pointing at it. "...is what I call the 'marker', I know it's a work in progress. If I had two of these journals, I could open one to a blank page and then I would press the symbol on the spine to the page. Am I making any sense?"

Harry's eyebrows were scrunched together but he nodded. "So when you press the mark to the page, it activates the runes in the journals and links them together. Then you can name that page, and it will appear in the table of contents over here with the page number." I continued.

"Now what page does my name say?" I asked him while reaching into my robes and pulling out my own journal.

"One." Harry said.

"That's because I'm number one!" I joked as I opened my journal to Harry's page. Harry just stared at me and turned to the first page. "Now if I were to write on this page, it would immediately show up on your page also, do you understand now?"

Harry stopped in his tracks, realizing the implications of the journal, once again. He slowly turned to me.

"Do you know how many owls you just put out of business?"