The Third Time is a Charm

Posted 17 October 2009



Chapter 35: Who Wrote This Book?



Lucius Malfoy carefully ran scan after scan looking for any curse or portkey or other danger to his family on the package that had been sitting under the Christmas tree in his large family room. All the other presents were already distributed and he and Narcissa were pondering over whom it was that might have sent the strange package addressed to The Malfoy Family: A Gift for Your Family’s Good Health.



Narcissa didn’t know anything about the package and neither did he. It must be from one of his assistants or maybe one of the Dark Lord’s followers. Lucius hadn’t detected anything so he opened the shiny green wrapping and looked at the book inside. When he read the title, he was sure it must be from one of the Dark Lord's followers that he was acquainted with. Then he started to read. After about the first page, he looked at the title again and then looked at the publisher. He didn’t know Prince Publishing, but he knew Severus’ mother was a Prince. Then he remembered that she had been disowned as well as her child. Her father had not been happy she had married a muggle, so this couldn’t be from Severus. It had to be from someone he was related to though. He firecalled the man at Spinner’s End and asked to see him immediately. Narcissa looked at him with a puzzled expression, but didn’t say anything as she was nibbling on a plain biscuit to calm her queasy stomach.



As the young Severus Snape stepped through the floo, he looked at Lucius Malfoy with a sneer. Actually the man was a friend but Snape didn’t appreciate being interrupted on his holiday with pesky people that thought they were more important than anyone else. Snape did not like to be disturbed.



“What is it I can do for you, Lucius?” The man asked in a disgruntled voice.



“I asked you here to see if you know anything about this book.” Lucius was sternly polite. He was worried about getting in trouble with the Dark Lord for having this information and was hesitant about letting anyone know he had it.



“I, too, received that trash. Do you believe what it says?” He replied cautiously. Actually he didn't think it was trash, but he didn't want to tell Lucius that until he found out what his position on all this was.



“I actually called to see if you knew who wrote it. It says the publisher is Prince Publishing and I have never heard of them. Are you related to someone with a publishing house?” Lucius’ mask was firmly in place as he queried the younger man.



“I have never heard of them and am just as puzzled as you. Have you read any of it?”



“Not really, just the first page. Narcissa and I have been enjoying our holiday together and just got to this as it was under the tree in the back behind all the other presents.”



“All I can say is, you need to read it and know that parts of it, at least, are true. Some of the things I already knew, but others I would have to check out. Be careful, my friend, as others will be furious if they see it.” As the young man said his closing statement, he flooed back to his own modest home wondering if anyone else had received the book. He hadn’t read the whole book, but he skimmed through it and realized that if everything written was true, this would rock the wizarding world on its axis. These people, whoever they are, were going to create a lot of enemies.





The next day...



Albus Dumbledore was sitting at his desk with the gifts from his many admirers contemplating the holiday. Christmas day he was out of the school visiting his brother Aberforth and he had just got back the morning after. He was trying to come up with a plan to flush out Voldemort and somehow gain more control over the ministry. As he opened his gifts he had received many unique kinds of candy from several people that were traveling abroad. At the present a pack of gummy bears was an interesting item. They were flavored in several different fruits and chewy but they kept sticking to his teeth and he set them aside for now.



As he came to the end of the presents, he noticed a square package that had been placed on his desk that morning by one of the elves. It looked like another book and he picked it up to see if it had come with a card. There on the front, it was addressed to Headmaster Albus Dumbledore with no other name indicating who it was from. The writing was a very fancy type of calligraphy, so it was impossible to tell who it might be from. He opened the green wrapping and looked at the cover of the book. This was bad, oh, this was very bad, he thought to himself. He opened the book and started reading to see what was being said about the most hated wizard in the United Kingdom.



He was incensed. How dare someone write this and not let him know. Who was Prince Publishing anyway? There had been no Princes around since that girl was at school some twenty five years ago. What was her name? Ellen… or no… it was Eileen, Eileen Prince. Then he remembered that she had a son that had just graduated. Severus Snape, that was it, he could call on the young man and see if he knew who wrote the book. He sent an owl that very morning to see if he could get in touch with the young man.



A few minutes later Albus received a floo call from one of his young Order members. Sirius Black’s head was floating in the fire to let him know about a book he had received. Albus invited him to come through and talk about it.



After explaining everything that had happened the day before with Remus and the presents he brought, Sirius was pacing the headmaster’s office floor.



“…I tell you headmaster, something has to be done. Remus is in with the wrong crowd and I don’t know what to do. This book has information that only Voldemort could know. I think it is a tactic to infiltrate our group to find out what we are doing. Remus said these people collaborate with other creatures and make friends with house elves and goblins. Something isn’t right about this.”



“Calm down, Sirius, I am sure there is a good explanation for this. Who wrote the book, can you tell me?” The headmaster sat back in his chair watching the young man pace in front of his desk obviously very agitated.



“I don’t know. I mean, who would call themselves Tempus Spiritus? There is something not right here. Remus couldn’t tell us who these people are and also couldn’t tell us where they are.” Sirius stopped in front of the old man for a minute to face him as he stopped his pacing. “My brother is involved with them also. Remus saw him when he met briefly with them before coming to the Potter’s for Christmas dinner. He said Regulus no longer has the dark mark, these people took it away.” Sirius started pacing again. “Who has that kind of power? I don’t like this; I don’t like this at all Headmaster.”



Albus was not too happy to hear this either. If these people were on the side of the light, why would they not come to see him, unless they knew something of his plans? They obviously had a great deal of knowledge, but that was impossible no one knew he was planning to control the ministry from the school. Even if they did no one would believe it. He hadn’t read the book yet but had just skimmed through it to see what it was about. Obviously Sirius knew more about what was written in this book. He turned his attention back to his former student to continue to listen to what he had to say.



“There is a chapter in that book that states there is no such thing as a muggleborn, only squib born and descended; that no witch or wizard could be created by two true muggles. Who writes this kind of stuff? Lily is going to Gringotts sometime today or tomorrow to do the inheritance test to find out. What will happen to our world if a bunch of muggles try to claim they are descended from squibs?”



At this statement Albus started paying attention again. He had been trying to claim some of the vaults from the families he knew had died out with the idea of being a distant cousin and every time he had gone to Gringotts he was turned down saying that no one but the family could claim a vault. But he had claimed a few at first about fifty or sixty years ago, then the goblin that was helping him shut down the whole procedure and said he would not be allowed to claim anything but his own personal vaults. He had pointed out to them that the main family died out but they were very insistent. Albus interrupted Sirius’ rant in mid stream.



“Sirius, sit down and let’s talk about this calmly. Did Remus say anything about how long this publishing group had been in existence or how old the person was that wrote the book?”



“He said he didn’t know. How could you work for someone and not know? He said he owed these people his life because they had cured him of being a werewolf. I didn’t know there was a werewolf cure did you?”



Albus shook his head in the negative, made a mental note to ask Slughorn later, and continued with his own list of questions. “And you say that he was wearing new robes?”



“Not just new robes Albus, the finest quality acromantula silk robes I have ever seen. Not just silk embroidered, but the material was acromantula silk, and he brought robes for all three of us and the Potter’s unborn baby. You can’t get that kind of stuff at a store, it has to be special ordered and tailored made. I was afraid to wear them; I thought there might be tracking spells on them even though I couldn’t detect any.



“Alright, Sirius, please tell the Potters we will have an Order meeting in a few days, I will owl everyone with the details.” Knowing that he was being dismissed, Sirius took his leave of the headmaster and flooed back to the Potter’s to tell them what he and Albus had spoken about.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Voldemort was infuriated, he had come to the LaStrange’s home to visit and discuss their next step of attack with some of his inner circle when he found out about the book. They had received it and no one told him about it. Who had this knowledge except him? How did they get it? He immediately called a meeting of the other Death Eaters using Bella’s mark. Not just the inner circle but the whole group. By the time he was finished and his anger abated somewhat, Bella was writhing on the floor in pain.



“Oh, stop your whimpering woman,” Voldemort said with a sneer on his face, “you should be happy to bear the pain in my name.” He actually loved torturing her, in his sick and twisted mind it gave him great pleasure that someone was so devoted that he could inflict great amounts of pain and they would still come back for more. Bella was a very strong and powerful witch and he could drain more power from her than most of his female followers. His entire inner circle was magically powerful; he needed them to be so he could complete some of his tasks. He mostly sat back and told everyone else what to do, but some things he couldn't trust them with. It was not in his nature to get into the middle of battle and risk himself, but occasionally he would just to keep the troops in line.



Voldemort sat on a throne like chair in the LaStrange’s ballroom as the Death Eaters popped in one by one. When the room was full, the older man started the meeting.



“I am very disappointed that some of you have received a book yesterday and I didn’t find out until today about it. I want to know now, how many of you got this?” As he said that he held up the book in question. The Death Eaters were fearful of what would happen if they told him, but they were more afraid of what would happen if they didn’t.



Lucius Malfoy came forward and bowed before his Lord. He could possibly salvage this situation if he presented it in just the right manner. He hadn’t let Narcissa come with him, even though her mark flared as his had. She was three months pregnant and he didn’t wish for anything to happen to this child. She had given birth to twins who were only five months old now, but they were female and had shown little signs of any magical power so they were trying again. Usually when the baby was born, you could feel at least a little magic coming from them even if they couldn’t use it yet.



“You may speak Malfoy.” Voldemort acknowledged him after a few minutes of watching him grovel. The young Malfoy had recently taken over his father’s place, when he died last year. He was a valuable follower as his father had been politically powerful and now the younger Lord had taken his father’s place.



“My Lord, the book appeared under my Christmas tree with no indication as to whom it was from. I was trying to ascertain its origin when you called us. Yesterday I was able to speak to another colleague but did not find the information I was seeking. I did not know you were uninformed about the book, I apologize for any undue stress this has caused you.”



“And just what did you find out Lucius.” Voldemort’s wand hand was just itching to kill or crucio someone, but he held back to see what information Lucius could give him.



“The book was published by a company called Prince Publishing but is not registered in Wizarding England, the name Tempus Spiritus is of course fictitious and has never been used on any other published book or magazine article before. The Prince line has died out and no one here in the United Kingdom can lay claim to the family. I am assuming that it is some foreign company that has published it but I have not received responses from my foreign contacts due to the holidays. I should hear from them by the first of the year.” The young lord paused to get his thoughts together. Most of this was speculation, but he had to say something.



“The book is not for sale in any bookstore and was not purchased by anyone. It was delivered by owl to our front doorstep and so were the others I had inquired about. Whoever wrote and published it has to have money because no payment was ever made to anyone for the book. I believe that an anonymous press release, a letter sent to the Daily Prophet could dispel its contents easily. This company has no standing, no reputation and no building, and it has never published anything before, people can’t take it seriously.



Voldemort was actually slightly appeased by this report. The young Malfoy Lord didn’t have the information he wanted but he did have some answers and a way to discredit the information. It showed he was thinking and he was willing to show some initiative. Of course, initiative could be a bad thing if he was too independent. He would have to watch the Malfoy scion for any insubordination later. Voldemort then addressed the group of followers standing before him. “Does everyone agree with Malfoy’s assessment?” After the assent of everyone in the room he asked, “Does anyone else have any other information about this matter that might be useful?” That was when Severus Snape moved forward and stated his information to the Dark Lord.



“My Lord,” the young man interjected, “The Headmaster of Hogwarts has sent me a missive asking for an audience to discuss the book. He asks that I come to the school tomorrow at noon to speak about the origins of the publication. I do not know what information he has but I was going to ask you if you thought this would be appropriate.”



“Why would that old fool wish to converse with you about this matter?”



“My mother was a disowned Prince. He would remember this and probably want to ask if I knew who published it, or he may want me to join his cause and use the information to sway my judgment. There is no telling what is in the old coot’s mind but if you wish I can meet with him to find out.”



“Yes, I do believe this would be acceptable. You will coordinate with Malfoy and compile a report for me due at the first of the year. Lucius, you will send a press release to the Daily Prophet today, disavowing the information contained in this monstrosity of published works but do not sign it. I don’t want people to know who my supporters are just yet. You are too valuable as a hidden entity.”



Both Snape and Lucius bowed before the man sitting before them and acknowledged him together with the proper response. “Yes, my Lord.” Then they moved back into the group, silently returning to their places in the collective.



“You are dismissed.” Voldemort told everyone and he watched as they popped out of the room with a series of cracks just as they had popped in earlier.



The Dark Lord had much to contemplate. He only hoped he could find out the origination of the book soon so he could destroy them once and for all. He decided to take it home with him and read it so he could know everything it said. He could not rely on these fools understanding all the information contained in the book as well as he would.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Albus Dumbledore was sitting at his desk when an owl flew to the window. He quickly took the parchment attached to its claw and read the message written on it. It was Snape agreeing to meet with him tomorrow at noon. Good, maybe he could get to the bottom of this fiasco once and for all. He already had an interview with the Daily Prophet to disabuse everyone of the notion that muggleborns didn’t exist and were actually born from squibs. He didn’t believe it for a moment and wanted the wizarding population to believe it even less. He hadn’t wanted the information in the book coming out to the public. It wasn’t in his plans for the ministry takeover.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



In Diagon Alley, a mysterious ‘vending machine’ appeared in the middle of the street. The creators of the machine knew it would not last long but for ten sickles one could buy a book. Just put in the money and the book appeared at the bottom in an opening. The only thing different about this machine was it did not use electricity but ran on magic and it was one of a kind. No one saw it appear but the morning after Christmas it was in the middle of the street ready for use. It advertised several books in a miniature form and came with instructions to enlarge it once you were ready to read it. At first everyone was very wary and didn’t approach the contraption but as a few ‘muggleborns’ knowing what a vending machine was, used it and started reading, more of the population entered into the fray.



It was three hours later when a crowd of people were surrounding it that the aurors were called and it was taken into custody. Even they didn’t want to touch it, but they decided to keep the public safe and so portkeyed it to the ministry. It resisted all spells to dismantle it, so even at the ministry, in order to find out what was going on, the aurors used the machine and bought books, soon the other departments were doing the same thing and before you knew it, the entire place was reading a book instead of working, even the minister himself.



The next day the Daily Prophet headlines read Who Wrote this Book? The article was by a new reporter Rita Skeeter, who had been sent a copy of the same present as the followers of Voldemort. And although there were several articles denying the information about muggleborns, and other facts specified in the book, from “concerned citizens” and Albus Dumbledore, not one word was written, nor confirmed by the goblins of Gringotts Bank. Since the only people that knew about the information were mostly the purebloods that had received it, the only thing the article did was publicize that there was a mysterious book for sale with new information that was never made public before.



An hour after the aurors portkeyed the ‘vending machine’ away, another appeared mysteriously in the middle of Diagon Alley.



Gringotts serviced over thirty so called muggleborns that day and every one of them were from magical families with squibs in their blood lines. Three of them were from pureblood families thought to have died out and had vaults in Gringotts that had not been touched in over a hundred years. An elderly goblin named Gorbink had contacted Albus Dumbledore to let him know his claims for vaults of families that were died out were being denied again, as they had been claimed by squib born witches and wizards. The old wizard was now going apoplectic in his office at the loss of funds he could never try to claim again.







Thank you to my recent reviewers nari-cjan, mithrilandtj, Kim and kaasan. The next chapter will be up Wednesday and will be about Becca's big Secret so stay tuned everyone. Over 8000 hits to this story. Yeah!!!!