Time Twisted Fate

Chapter four ~ The Truth

Lila looked up guiltily. "Umm... yeah? Look, can we talk about this in private?" she motioned to a small alcove behind some bookshelves and dragged Hermione over. "Go on." Hermione looked at her with deep disgust.

"You're Voldemort's daughter, aren't you? Of all the awful, repulsive... I don't even know why Dumbledore let you work here. Does he even KNOW?!" spat Hermione. To her surprise, Lila didn't seem in the slightest bit annoyed by what Hermione said. Lila sighed.

"Yeah, Dumbledore does know. He let me work here because I'm on the run from my father. And, actually, I am the daughter of Tom Riddle, NOT Voldemort. That vile thing, obsessed with the Dark Arts... You know, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone about me. Because they'd only react like you did. Why do you think I came here? Because no one knows me here. They don't look at me and say, she's the heir of Voldemort, let's run away." Hermione looked at her skeptically.

"Aren't you proud to be his daughter? I mean, he's a powerful wizard." Lila looked back at her with distain.

"Yeah. So powerful, he removed the spirit of my mother from her body and transferred another one to it. I sympathize with Harry. Everyone takes me for granted. If I had been sorted, I would have gone into Slytherin. Why? Because my father was there. Thankfully, I wasn't sorted." Hermione furrowed her brow in confusion.

"You weren't sorted? Why? I- I mean, you came to- to Hogwarts?!" Lila looked down.

"Yeah, I came to Hogwarts. Father applied for me to get in a year early, and Dippet agreed. So I graduated last year. I mean, well, MY last year, if you get that. Anyway, since father had already taught me all the stuff I needed to know about the Dark Arts, and more, so I had a private tutor, Dippet himself. So I never got sorted, and slept in a teacher's room." Lila shrugged. "It's not that big a deal. I just don't want people to judge me by what my family is, but what I'm like. So I want to give people some time to get to know me, before they know who I am." Hermione nodded.

"Yeah, Harry's always like that. He hates publicity."

"Oh, and by the way, not many people know that Tom Riddle had a daughter, so that'll be a shock for them too." Lila mentioned. "And how did you know who I am anyway?" Hermione gestured to the book. The title was 'Children Of Infamous Witches And Wizards' Lila snorted. "Yup. Infamous."

"I read it a few years ago, and I recognized your photo." Hermione flicked through to find the page.

"A few years ago? And you still remember? Whoa!" muttered Lila, as she looked over Hermione's shoulder. "That looks NOTHING like me!" The girl in the picture was years younger, and was wearing a black outfit, with her wand raised, an echo of the Dark Mark above it. "And where did they get this? I haven't ever performed the Dark Mark!" Hermione snorted and pointed at the name of the photographer.

"Rita Skeeter. Obviously." Hermione and Lila headed back over to the boys, who were sitting, bored. "Oh, and can I tell them?" Lila nodded reluctantly.

"But if this gets around the school, I am going to kill you."

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

Hermione was as good as her word, and nothing happened in the next two weeks, if of course, you could call almost drowning twice, nothing. Then, a front-page article appeared. One that aroused the whole school. The headline was, 'You-Know-Who makes a comeback'. The article, along with a massive picture of the Dark Mark perched above someone's house, was being read by the whole school. Those who had the paper delivered daily gasped in the middle of breakfast, and by the end of the day, everyone had read it.

The first victims were muggle, a load of students who were on work-experience at a farm. The killing was made in Sterling, Scotland. The second one was made not far from there, on a squib. He was seventy-three year old man with rheumatism, and was feeding his cat when he was killed. Soon, almost the whole school was scared, since Voldemort hadn't made a public appearance since the Dark Days. What frightened most people was that these killings were made so close to Hogwarts, and he didn't seem scared of Dumbledore anymore.

Lila, however, was one of the few people not stimulated by this news. Along with several Slytherins, who probably knew that Voldemort was going to do this from their parents, Lila ignored the sudden tidal wave of protection amulets and charm and such stuff, and carried on life as normal. However, in her mind, she was already plotting for what to do when Voldemort tried to attack the school. She had it all planned out......... With this all safely out of her mind, she went to check on the Prefects fireplace.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, was taking a lot of precautions. Care of Magical Creature was now in the dungeons, flying lessons were in the room that Fluffy used to occupy, and a swimming pool had been made in two spare classrooms that had the wall in the middle knocked down. Hagrid had been relocated, Quidditch games had to be prepared for two weeks beforehand, what with all the charms and protection spells being cast, and team practices were in the air above the swimming pool.

Lila wasn't surprised at the fuss, but none of it really concerned her, since she knew everything about Voldemort anyway. Dumbledore had asked her several times for information and tactics, and she had been only too happy to oblige, but she was obsessed with something slightly nearer to home.