The Morning Star

Chapter 3

“Crucio”

The twitching and leering figure of Belatrix Lestange laying beneath Dark Lord’s feet let out a hoarse sound, but it seemed that her vocal chords have finally given up. Annoyed lord Voldemort looked at the kneeling forms of death eaters and let his gaze rest on the shivering form of the black haired man.

“Tell me, Theodore…” he hissed and the mentioned man all but froze on the marble floor. “…can you by any chance be more informative than Bellarix.”

“My lord?” The question came out as pathetic whimper and killed almost all Nott’s chances of surviving Lord Voldemort’s wrath.

“The Name, Nott, tell me It’s Name. Tell me anything about that creature and you will live. Or do you also intend to tell me that It does not exist?”

“NO! Please, my Lord, … I will find out about that creature, I swear! ”

Voldemort slowly raised his wand for a moment wondering whenever he should give the pathetic excuse of a man to Nagini or finish it himself.

“Crucio”

XXX

If someone had told him that a childish memory will save his sanity, Lucius Malfoy would have most likely ignored the comment. But one flashback form his early days forced out with the power of ‘Legimens’ made him useful in the eyes of lord Voldemort. Thus with the memory of crazed Belatix still fresh in his mind, one thought was persistently nagging man’s conscious as entered the Malfoy Summer Residence in Welsh : ‘Dear grandmother Anette, bless her soul for reading me all those books’.

The residence itself was like no other manor in his family’s possession: rather small house with a simple garden full of violas and irises. Still, it was an outstanding place. The walls of the building were almost entirely made of stained glass, and you could always hear the jingling of the bells that were swinging back and forth, hung low on the willow branches that stood near the grandiose entrance.

Lucius Malfoy used to love this place then he was a child. A sanctuary of knowledge, love and freedom…a fairytale land…it held many memories. But that was many years ago and now only feelings of bitterness swirled inside, when he faced simple wooden door. He tried to push it open with his trembling hands, but found it too hard a task. Yesterday’s “session” has left its’ mark.

“Kippy! Open the door!”

“Yes master!” Squealed pathetic creature as it popped near his feet and rushed to do his bidding.

The indoors was just as he remembered – one big library. Rows and rows of bookcases were forming a labyrinth on the ground floor, and as if his memory did not betray him it extended to the first, the second and the third floors.

Lucius in general appreciated a good read and was quite proud of the fact that his family’s (deceased Anette’s , to be more precise ) collection exceeded even the vast corpus of Hogwarts. Still, looking at the sight before him he felt like cursing somebody.

“Kippy, collect all the story books that you can find and send them to my office.” He finally exclaimed after minutes of silence.

The old elf started fidgeting, terror clearly seen in its’ enormous eyes. The only thing that kept Lucius from hitting the creature with his cane was his current weakness and the respect that he felt towards the beloved memory of Anette, who for some unfathomable reason believed all lives to be equal.

“What is it Kippy?” He sighed, weary from all of it.

“I am terribly sorry… mmaster Malfoy…. Mistress had placed true-heir spell on all of her books.”

Lucius swore. He should have known, it would not be so easy. It was only to be expected from her.

After all who in their right mind would sort all the literature by book cover’s color of all things.

XXX

When Draco had been called back from school for a family emergency, he knew not what to expect. Well, he for sure hadn’t expected to be stuck in some crazy ancestor’s home with his father reading books for three entire weeks. And Merlin only knew, for how much longer.

He had to admit, though, as far as doing lord Voldemort’s bidding went this was bearable. As it was he kept his opinion about working for the immortal-wanna-be to himself. Not that Lucius had told him anything about that, big surprise there. Like always the man had insisted on keeping everything inside, throwing only a few words of acknowledge at his side and still expecting the perfect heir act.

“Tempus”

A floating numbers 17.45 appeared near him as Draco uttered the spell.

Three hours have passed since his father left to the meeting. As far as he could tell from the previous 5 times, it was still too early to worry. Besides, the crazy megalomaniac needed Lucius alive and sane. He was his right hand man, after all.

Draco grabbed the nearest book that happened to be a Spanish dictionary and threw it to the wall. The glass picturing a dawn shattered.

“Reparo”

“Kippy! Why aren’t the lights lit yet!? It is getting dark here!”

The chandleries lit on, but the elf hasn’t shown up. This behavior differed so much from the behavior of the elves at home or even at school. Draco rolled his eyes and wondered not for the first time what kind of mistress his great grandmother had been. Judging from all the books she was a lot like Granger… Now, that was a disturbing thought.

Since the end of the sixth grade he, the golden boy and Granger were on speaking terms. If he were honest with himself, he would have admitted that the certain muggle-born was not all that bad. She was clever enough to understand his insults, and, unlike some people, could answer them with some of her own rather than a spell or a fist fight, off all things. Besides, he needed somebody with whom he could speak about the upcoming NEWTS. But most importantly, she helped him in his search of the missing professor Snape. That was something Draco was really grateful for. Not that they efforts were doing any good, mind you. It was as if professor disappeared in thin air, as if he had never existed. Worse, as far as he could say from Granger’s letters the order of the old coot was about to give up the search. She asked him not to lose hope, yet, and wrote that she had managed to nag Potter into a promise to talk with the order about it. So, yes, if Draco were honest with himself, he would have admitted that she was OK. Luckily, honesty was not one of the Malfoy family traits.

The young Malfoy yawned, and took a yellow book from the shelf. It was the last of the yellow one’s, a very antique looking and, just to spite him, a story book. It had many strange picture that were drawn in black, read and yellow ink and had an eastern feeling about them. Though, while he was under the translation spell Draco could not tell whether the book was from the east or not. All the words in all the languages, he knew not looked English to him. And that was one of the problems of the translation spells, another far more serious being the fact that they slightly changed the meaning of the text to adjust it to the reader’s lever, but inconveniently left all the terms unchanged and unexplained. But it was all irrelevant in the case of the tales for children. He signed and started to read.

The myth of the creation of the world of Twelve kingdoms

...Tentei then said: „I will now completely destroy the Nine States and Four Barbarians, and return to the Past of the Creator. After the Creation of the W orld, there will be Order. After the Beginning of Things, there will be Law and Discipline.”
And He created Thirteen Kingdoms. The Kingdom in the Center was the Yellow Sea and Mt. Hou, and Tentei asked Oubo to protect this Place.
The Remaining Twelve Kingdoms, He distributed to Rulers, and to each, He bestowed Branches which were the Foundations of Kingdoms.
Upon the Branch, there was a Snake that held up the Sky.
Upon the Branch, there were Three Fruit. One Fruit fell and formed the Throne. One Fruit fell and formed the Land. One Fruit fell and formed the People.
The Branch then transformed into a Jade Brush. This was the Creation.
The Land is the census and the registry of public lands. The kingdom is the rule of law. The throne is the justice and benevolence of the king, or the Saiho.
The Throne is bestowed upon the king by the will of Heavens. It is by the will of Heavens only that it can be taken away..

The establishment of the Fourteenth kingdom

Many years after the creation, a sage walked between the worlds. A vision of the great calamity that will fall upon his own land, haunted his heart, thus he was searching for a way to prevent it. But no matter were would he go no one could help him.

The sage had a power over the wooden stick that could do miracles. As he walked through lands of Tentei, he would wave that stick and help people whenever he saw hardship or misfortune.

It has been seen by the Saiho of Tai, the Saiho of Hou, the Saiho of Kei, the Saiho of Kou, by Keiou, by Enou, and by many other kirins and their kings. They traveled to Mt. Hou and pleaded for Tentei to help the sage. All the kings, Oubo and the sage fell to the floor, and kirins lowered their heads, for it was against their souls’ nature to kowtow before anyone, but their kings as Tentei spoke to the sage: “You walked many miles under this sky and abided all of the heavenly laws, though you are not even a sennin. For your deeds, I will give you a branch from Heavenly Shashinboku, with ranka of kokki. And then this calamity befalls upon your land it will choose a ruler able to restore equilibrium and bring pease. But remember that only the land which follows the Heavenly Decree can blessed by Me. And remember, the black kirin of your world will be born from the woman’s womb. Neither will it have nyokai to guard him nor nyosen to guide, teach and serve. Such will be it’s predicament in your land, thus this knowledge that I give you now cannot be forgotten or lost. For the Saiho is a holy kirin of the heavens aren’t nothing more fatal than blood to him; Saiho has a human shape, but it’s true form is that of a kirin, thus his power resides in his horn; By bowing to the king, and swearing eternal service, it embodies the true will of Heavens, thus as long as the king follows the Heavenly Decree the king and his kirin lives; But beware, the king, who break the Heavens law and rule without benevolence and just; Your Saiho will fall ill and with it’s passing all the blessings that I give to you and your land will be lost; The kirin is usually protected by the power of the Heaven’s, his nyokai and shirei, but none of that it will have in your land; Still, his greatest power of protection is his speed, for no one is swifter than galloping kirin...”

The sound of the entrance door opening startled Draco. He quickly cast shrinking spell on the book and hid it in his robe pocket.

Lucius walked into the room and collapsed into the nearest chair. Sweat was clearly visible on his pail forehead and the wrinkles around his eyes looked even deeper than before.

“You don’t look too good, father. Were the evening entertainments too rough for you? “

“Don’t start, Draco.” Lucius sounded weary and annoyed.

“If you don’t like it, then put that pride of yours away and start thinking. Weren’t you the one that taught me that Malfoys always have the better end of the bargain? Well, let’s face it father, the deal that you made with lord-wannabe-ruller-of-the-world sucks.“

“Show me, some respect!” He shouted and rose from the chair. Then with a heavy step he walked to the bar, poured himself a glass of cognac and signed. “It is not that simple Draco, no one leaves the dark lord and lives. Even thinking betraying Him is certain death warrant.” He said to the dark sky outside.

“Surely, you can talk the old coot into offering you protection in exchange to information. Place you under Fidelius charm. Besides, professor Snape has disappeared more than six weeks ago, but the Dark Lord isn’t going on the rampage to find him. He is, obviously, too obsessed this strange creature of his to care, about that. ”

Lucius Malfoy laughed, bitterly. “Oh, don’t compare me to him. The only death eater who doesn’t know that Severus is special to the Dark Lord is Severus. And don’t expect me to believe, that Lord Voldemort doesn’t know just where exactly Snape is. There is even joke going around that the only way to explain Dark Lord’s obsession with this mysterious magical creature, is to assume that the creature is Severus Snape.”

Draco shuddered. Disturbing just wasn’t strong word enough to describe it. Really, death eaters could make posters stating: ‘Come to the dark side, we have the juiciest gossip!’ to attract new members.

Silence filled the room. Younger Malfoy stood up and walked to the shelf that he was inspecting earlier and started checking books. A French dictionary, “Charms for everyday”, “History of the Muggles”, “Kamasutra” (he didn’t want to think, how that one ended at his great grandmother’s house) , a guidebook…

“I’ll think about it. Now, go to sleep, I want you gone back to school, tomorrow morning.”

Draco smiled. “Goodnight father.”