Summer Break

Minerva sat gazing at the Wizard Chess set that an owl had just brought to her.

Alastor had spent the summer sending her gifts of varying degrees. Her parents were most enchanted with him and his manners. He had been over several times since school had gotten out.

Minerva tried not to remember the crestfallen look she had seen on Tom Riddle’s face at Platform 9 ¾ as he had been picked up by the muggle caretaker.

She had done a lot of reading and thinking over the summer and she found that she didn’t think Tom was so slimey when he wasn’t there. She could remember nice things about him but then she’d remember the other things and she’d stop thinking about it.

She was sitting in her room now pretending to study her seventh year Transfiguration book. Her mother had invited over Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Bagman. Both ladies were as old as her parents and both were trying to get pregnant with some of the new potions and spells available.

The chatter of babies and names like Ludo Bagman and James Potter made Minerva shudder in queasy fear and leave. She had been so close to having to choose a name for a child that she didn’t want to hear about it.

She shut her Transfiguration book, wiped an invisible speck of dust off her HEAD GIRL badge and opened the chest set’s red and gold box.

Inside was not a Wizard’s chess set at all but several different gadgets. Moody gadgets.
Alastor was a procurer of gadgets. She picked up each item.

There was a sneak-a-scope, a new two way mirror, auto answer quills, something that looked like a muggle voodoo doll that vaguely resembled Tom Riddle and some very tiny things called contact lenses that Alastor had gotten from a gadget maker who was trying to sell them to muggles for their eyesight but couldn’t get approval for them.

They were different colors and as she held them up she could see the old paint under the wall coverings on the wall of her room. She didn’t think she wanted Alastor’s spy toys.

He was going to be a great auror. He just had that in him but she couldn’t keep all these things. She knew that she should be thrilled with the gifts but she didn’t need foe-glasses and funny things while she was at home and at school there was Alastor and Professor Dumbledore so she really didn’t need to worry. Tom Riddle was not going to hurt her anymore.
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Tom Riddle sat on his bed reading. Most of the younger children feared him and the older children were terrified of him so he did not have to worry about anyone bothering him.

The two boys that were his room companions never stayed in the room when he was there so this hot summer morning he was completely alone.

He wasn’t really reading the annoying article on magical beasts. He could care less about the pride of a hippogriff or the uses of a house-elf. They were lesser beings and Tom wanted nothing more than to squash anything useless.

His anger at his muggle captors, as he liked to think of this place, was wearing on him. He had wanted to send Minerva a beautiful bracelet that he had procured from one of the girls who was being adopted and had been given the beautiful piece by her new parents.

The girl was careless and left it lying around. Tom knew Minerva would not be so careless.

Tom picked up the little box and opened it. It held the bracelet and a bag of shiny marbles and a tin with mints. He had found a place where he could work on spells and charms and not be sent threatening owls about expulsion.

There was an old forest near the orphanage that must have magical abilities as he had gone there and practiced and none were the wiser. He had charmed the bracelet with his and Minerva’s names, the marbles changed colors and glowed and the tin he had charmed with his own voice when it opened.

He had wanted to mail it to her but the caretaker’s would not send the package. They only cared about those children that were moneymakers in their mind. Tom knew that one day he would return them the favor. When he graduated Hogwarts he would return all muggles the favors they had disposed upon them.

He turned the page of the book and look at the house elf on the page. Ugly creatures. He recalled Minerva chattering to the pregnant one. He didn’t recall her name. The book said their owners could call them. Well surely, since he was a Hogwarts student, he could call one. He wondered if Minerva had a house elf.

Frustrated he slammed the book shut and got up. He dropped the box in his pocket and headed out to the yard.

He knew that there was a wizarding community on the other side of town but he had no way of getting there without walking and they would notice he was missing. He decided he didn’t care.

He needed to send the box to Minerva and he could always lie and charm his way out of trouble. Not that they really punished him more than refusing him meals but he managed to get food anyway. He had found that he could delve into people’s minds and fear of what surfaced and fear of him usually made them do what he wanted. He began walking down the street ignoring the calls from the porch of the orphanage.
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Minerva sat on the swing with Alastor while their parents chattered with the Potters, Bagmans and a new family in town called Shacklebolts. Their six-month-old son was tottering around gurgling happily.

Alastor had his arm around her shoulder and was looking quite smug. Minerva was reading on her book or at least she was pretending too.

Alastor reached over and closed the book, taking it from her hands.

“How about we go for a walk?”

“Alastor, I need…..”

“You need to quit being such a bookworm and come walk with me.”

He rose and led her off the porch and onto the street. They walked for a long ways in comfortable silence. They came to a small park that was empty and they sat on a bench.

“We could have sat on the swing at home,” Minerva replied grumpily looking around at the surrounding forest.

“But I wanted to talk to you in private without our parents.”

“About what?”

Alastor pulled the black box that he had left on her nightstand while she was in the hospital. Minerva had never opened it.

“No Alastor.”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

Minerva looked at him warily. He opened the box to reveal a black obsidian ring.

“Alastor….”

“Minerva, it’s just a promise ring. But I had my dad tinker on it and it’s like the two-way mirrors, except you have to say my name. I can’t reply to you but it’s for if you need help or something.”

He slid the ring on her left ring finger and looked up at her with that boyish goofy grin he had when he wanted to charm someone.

She sighed, “People will talk.”

“They are talking anyway. Who cares?”

Minerva nodded and he returned to sit next to her. He was restless and edgy for a couple minutes before he turned to face her again, “Minerva, I was wondering if you would ask your parents to bring you to the Leaky Cauldron the night before we return to Hogwarts.”

“Why Alastor?”

”Well…I was thinking that you and I could spend the night studying while our parents enjoyed a night at Diagon Alley.”

“That’s a wonderful idea Alastor. I would like that.”

Alastor leaned over and kissed her, holding her as she shuddered a little. He didn’t repulse her, just intimate things in general did right now. Kissing always reminded her of that night and she was set on forgetting it.

They walked back to her home. Alastor was cutting jokes and being ornery. It was annoying her slightly until she stepped into the house and saw the owl waiting.

“It refused to give up the package dear,” her mother replied.

Minerva took the package, looking at it curiously. She gave the owl a treat and opened the wrapping. She dropped the box as if she’d been stung.