A Matter of Black and White

DISCLAIMER: This story is based upon the works of JK Rowling. Anything you recognize is hers. I’m making no money off this. I’m just having some fun adding my own little corner to the amazing world she has created.

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CHAPTER 2—A THEORY INTO MADNESS

“Ah, yes,” Dumbledore said gravely. “Wolfram and Mika Kiebitzei were your parents. They stood alongside Lord Voldemort in one of my early fights against him. A powerful witch and wizard.”

Aurora didn’t bother to stifle a contemptuous guffaw.

“I hadn’t been aware that they had a daughter.”

“I was ten,” she stated simply, as if this explained it all.

“And expatriate wizarding families do tend to move in their own circles. I believe both your parents attended Durmstrang?”

“Naturally. My father’s father was German. My mother’s grandparents were Polish. The families wanted to make sure that the ‘old ways’”—the word soured in her mouth like a vinegar-flavored Bertie Botts’—“weren’t forgotten.”

“And after your parents died?”

“I went to live with my aunt in Switzerland.”

“Bernard?”

“My aunt’s husband—Muggle-born. Of course, my parents would’ve been furious.” Not that anyone, including their Death Eater friends could have done anything about it. Wizarding law was very clear that custody of orphans passed to the closest surviving Magical kin. “My aunt was, shall we say, the ‘white sheep’ in a family of very dark witches and wizards. She saw the change in Britain long before most people did—the growing bigotry toward Muggles and Muggle-borns, the increased interest in the Dark Arts. She moved to Switzerland—that blessed land of neutrality—” she added bitterly, “and started a new life there.”

“As I’m led to believe you did?” Dumbledore looked at her penetratingly.

Aurora locked her jaw and felt an invisible wall build up around her. “Oh, I’ll admit that living with my aunt did me a world of good. She sent me to a local Muggle school my first year there. Up until that point, I’d associated Muggles with chimps at the zoo. I don’t think I’d imagined they could even talk properly. After that, my aunt sent me to Beauxbatons. I think she would’ve liked to have sent me to a Swiss school—to keep an eye on me, you know—but the magical curriculum there is really quite drivel, and Beauxbatons is about the least Dark school of Wizardry in Europe.” With this bit of candor, Aurora caught another bemused expression from Dumbledore, who obviously realized she was including Hogwarts in this statement. “You see, they don’t have houses. It’s difficult to hole yourself up with a club of Dark little witches and wizards.”

“Quite true,” Dumbledore replied thoughtfully.

“But I certainly don’t hail my adopted Vaterland for my turning over a new leaf. It’s a nation of ostriches, or, from what I read in the papers, Cornelius Fudges. You’ve said for the past year that the Dark Lord had returned, and no one here listened. Well, now your government has finally admitted he’s back and—I see from this morning’s Prophet—found itself a new Minister. Still, Switzerland does not care. It’s a ‘British affair.’ No one will do anything!” she exclaimed in exasperation.

“And so you have come here to Britain,” Dumbledore stated simply. “But what, may I ask, are you going to do?”

So…it was now or never. Oh, Holda, what am I doing? a desperate voice in her head asked.

Aurora reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out the Kiebitzei family ring. “I’m showing you this.” She placed the object in front of the slightly startled old wizard.

“Ah, yes, I believe this is the source of your rather graphic seal.”

“Yes, but that’s not what I’m showing you. Look at the band.”

Dumbledore lifted the ring to peer at it more closely. “Oh, there, I see. Runes—early Teutonic, if I’m not mistaken.”

Aurora nodded, impressed by his recognition.

“‘In the ring a body,’ I believe it says.”

Once again, Aurora had to appreciate the depth of the Headmaster’s knowledge. “Yes, but that’s not what it has always said. When I was eight, I remember my father letting me look at it. It said something about mountains and lost treasure.”

This time it was Dumbledore who had to give Aurora a look of admiration. He obviously had not met many eight-year-olds who could read Teutonic runes.

Aurora shrugged her shoulders. “I’m good at languages.” She pressed on. “It was only after my parents died that I noticed the engraving had changed.”

“In the ring a body.”

“Yes. You see, this ring records the Kiebitzei family’s greatest secret. I’m quite certain that the old engraving had something to do with some stolen treasure from ages past. But then something happened…something that was important enough for the ring to have recorded a new secret.”

“Yes, Aurora?” Even behind what Aurora could tell was a carefully trained face, she could see the eagerness behind his half-moon spectacles.

“Well, I didn’t think about it for a long time. You see, this isn’t exactly an everyday-wear piece of jewelry,” she added dryly. She’d rather chop off her finger than wear that thing. “But then something I learned from my studies with the Holdahexe brought me back to it.” She inhaled deeply, the gravity of what she had learned weighing on her lungs like it was trying to keep itself from rising to the light of day. “You see, there is some very old magic, long forgotten and for very good reason. With it, you can store your soul…that is, if you kill someone first.”

“A Horcrux.”

“Yes,” she answered, this time a bit shaken with how quickly he had recognized this bit of very Dark Magic. “I started thinking about how the Dark Lord had never died, and then…” her voice raised, “…I realized that this is it. He must have used a Horcrux to preserve himself—a ring, I think. ‘In the ring a body’—don’t you see? It’s kept him from dying once and for all!” Her words had spilled out in one breath so that her last words were practically a gasp.

But to Aurora’s amazement, Dumbledore lacked her excitement. “Do you believe this ring is the Horcrux?” he asked carefully.

“No, I highly doubt that. Not with the way both you and I are able to handle it. There would be protective spells.”

“Then I am afraid you have told me no more than I have already conjectured,” he said, almost apologetically.

“You knew about the Horcrux?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I did.”

Well, fine. Maybe she couldn’t surprise him with her first theory, but her next one was bound to shock him, especially if he had already given thought to the first. “I think my father must have helped the Dark Lord hide the Horcrux.” Hell, he’d probably even helped his master create it—nothing like murder and desouling for a night out. “And I think I know where it is.”

Dumbledore remained impassive beyond a slight tilt of his head. “I would be delighted to hear your theory, Aurora.”

“As Professor Hrothgar told you, last year I was researching runic symbology. My theory was that runes, unlike modern languages, are not entirely arbitrary in their meanings they symbolize. I proposed that runic scholars could uncover greater forms of magic if they did not simply translate runes but also considered the actual forms of the markings themselves. For instance, you looked at these runes,” she pointed at the first set on the ring, “and you interpreted them as ‘ring.’ Anyone who studies runes knows they mean ‘ring,’ even though the markings are neither a ring nor a picture of a ring. This part of the meaning is arbitrary, albeit communally agreed upon.

“However,” she said with emphasis, now enjoying the familiar dramatic rhythm with which she would have spoken at one of her lectures at Das Institut, “I believe that meaning is only the tip of the iceberg. I believe a true ancient runic master or mistress, like, I think, the creator of this ring must have been, wouldn’t have been content with only one layer of meaning. He or she would have carefully selected runes that also spoke of the true magic behind them. According to my theory, we must look at the rune itself. See how the initial rune is larger than the rest, how these extended lines here seem to shelter the others? According to my research, it marks a house or domicile. And see these?” She pointed to the runes for body. “See how rounded they are? That’s an almost universal sign for femininity, maternity. I think these runes are telling us not only that a Horcrux exists but where to find it—the house of Tom Riddle’s mother!”

There was silence as Dumbledore contemplated all she had said. At last he replied, “I must say that your contact with me has come at an opportune time. I had, you see, already been in search of said ring before I received your letter.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, the exhilaration of her revelation falling away as she was forced to admit its main flaw, “but I don’t know anything more about the Riddle family.”

“Oh, I’ve done a bit of work in that area. I have some ideas about the place where your ring might be suggesting.”

Verdammt, he was being guarded, even after all she had revealed to him. “And you think you can destroy it and defeat the Dark Lord?”

“Oh, I doubt the ring is the only measure Voldemort took to ensure his immortality,” he answered cryptically.

Dumbledore’s lack of revelation after all she had told him made Aurora quite convinced that he still did not trust her or her too-good-to-be-true information. She was absolutely certain that he was still testing her when his blue eyes peered directly at her. Instinctively, Aurora raised a barricade against those haunting blue eyes. “I told you I’m not like them,” she murmured through gritted teeth, hating her parents more by the second.

But Dumbledore neither argued nor ceased his piercing stare.

Verdammt, he was a good Legilimens. He was not giving up his attempt to see inside her mind. She sighed resignedly. You knew you were going to have to do this Aurora, she scolded herself. She loosened a little and immediately felt her protective wall being swept away, those blue eyes washing inside her most hidden recesses. But before she could feel as if she were drowning in a flood of thoughts, the tide washed away.

Dumbledore stood there, smiling benignly. “Excellent Occlumency, Aurora.” He spoke brightly, as if he were praising a student who had received all Outstandings on her O.W.L.S. “I daresay most people never even realize I’m a Legilimens.”

But Aurora was no longer feeling up to reciprocating his pleasantries. “Yes, you can thank my father for that,” she retorted bitterly.

“I see,” Dumbledore answered, somewhat more somberly.

Then with a wry smile she added, “He didn’t want any ridiculous Dumbledore supporters uncovering any Kiebitzei secrets.”

“Certainly not,” he replied with a gleam in his eye. Then he took a moment to study her again. Aurora knew that this time he was not diving into her mind, but he was still quite obviously assessing her. She had just shifted uncomfortably in her chair when he continued, grave once more. “As I said, I do not believe the Horcrux ring is the only thing protecting Voldemort from death. My guess—and you should know my guesses are usually startlingly accurate—is that there are other Horcruxes.”

Aurora gasped. “More than one? But that would mean he would have had to split his soul!”

“I’m afraid so. But in doing so he would have had a failsafe if one of the others were ever to fall into the hands…of a ridiculous old man.”

Aurora thought for a moment. She shuddered to think what dividing the soul could do to an already wicked Dark Lord. Yes, it made perfect sense. With several well-hidden Horcruxes, he could go on indefinitely, and he certainly wouldn’t have given pause to all the murders he would have had to commit in order to create those Horcruxes.

“It seems the Kiebitzei family has quite a connection to these Horcruxes,” Dumbledore said slowly.

Aurora’s stomach gave an involuntary flip. She knew where this was going.

“The information you have provided me will, I pray, be invaluable. But unless a month’s good fortune has been packed into this one day, I’m guessing you do not have any other magical family jewels to tell me about?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Then I must ask you this, Aurora: In your letter you expressed a wish to serve me. Undoubtedly, you have already done so. But you did not simply come to Britain for a holiday, did you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then I ask you, do you wish to continue serving me?”

This was it. She wondered whether Das Institut would take her back. “Yes, I do.”

“Do you wish to continue serving me knowing that such service may be dangerous?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Even though it could even cost you your life?”

Aurora sincerely wished he wouldn’t be so thorough in his oath for allegiance. “Yes.”

Dumbledore sighed and seemed almost saddened by her answer. “Very well then. Voldemort’s use of Horcruxes demonstrates his interest in old magic—a subject in which you obviously have a great deal of expertise through the Holdahexe. Though I am quite certain that he has not shared information regarding the Horcruxes with most of his Death Eaters, I am equally certain that his mind will turn toward their protection as the war escalates. Voldemort is not quick to trust, but I believe he would be attracted to the child of two of his earliest followers, particularly two who were apparently so closely linked to one of his Horcruxes. You might be able to gain access to information about the whereabouts of the rest of the objects.”

Aurora stared down at the lint-covered sherbet lemon that Dumbledore had placed on the table. It looked like it was melting in its own stickiness, as if it had waited so long for someone to eat it that it was decaying of its own volition.

“You should give this some….”

“I’ll do it,” she interrupted. Meeting those blue eyes, she continued, “I figured you would ask me this.” And after his unimpeded look into her mind, she suspected he knew she had expected what he was propositioning.

“All the same, you should consider this request in its entirety. The path I am setting before you will be dangerous. It will also be…conscience-trying. A spy is torn between two masters, no matter where his or her heart ultimately lies. If you take this path, you will be crossing a point of no return.”

“With all due respect, Albus, you are not setting me on this path. I stepped onto it a long time ago.”

Dumbledore nodded. “So be it. Next I must ask you if you are as gifted in Mentior Occlumency as you are in Pure Occlumency?”

Aurora cringed. She was in a strange way grateful for her ability to protect her thoughts from prying minds. She truly hated the idea of someone else seeing her so intimately. She had, however, never attempted to learn the more advanced form of Occlumency that could misdirect a Legilimens’s probe with falsely planted thoughts. Such misdirection seemed nearly as deceitful as forcing one’s way into private thoughts to begin with. “My father never had the opportunity to teach me that skill…and I never found much reason to learn it myself.”

“I’m afraid you have a reason now. Voldemort’s ability to perform Legilimency is highly advanced. A mind protected by Pure Occlumency will be even more suspect to him than one filled with conflicting thoughts about his mission. If you are to go vis-à-vis with Voldemort, he must believe he can sense your loyalty. He cannot think you are hiding something from him.”

She nodded in reluctant understanding.

“If you are still willing to enter the belly of the beast, I can see to it that you learn the necessary skills. With your background in Occlumency, I’m sure you can have it learned in a couple of months. Up until that time, you will not make contact with Voldemort or his followers.” He peered over his spectacles so that his eyes seemed to lose their sparkle and looked more like slate. “Aurora, if at any point between now and then you wish to cease, I will understand.”

“Thank you, but I think we’ve both established that there is no going back on this course.”

“Of course,” Dumbledore answered as lightly as if she had merely reminded him that today was Tuesday. He took out his wand and tapped the sherbet lemon. Instantly, the lint disappeared from its surface, though the texture still looked dubious. He popped it into his mouth. “Mmm.” He smacked his lips. “Not bad.” He pushed back from the table and walked to the door. “Oh, and may I assume that you were sincerely interested in the Ancient Runes post at Hogwarts?”

Aurora grinned. “Well, seeing as how I did quit my job to lead a life of danger and intrigue….”

“Good, good,” he said as he stepped out the door. “Then I will see you in the autumn, though I wouldn’t promise the danger and intrigue to stop at the castle walls…even with the Weasley twins gone.”