223 Chapter 223: A Rose’s Thorns

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15 May 1994, Nott Manor, Liverpool

Cassius Nott loved his life. Oh, sure, it wasn't perfect, but recently, everything was going surprisingly well for him. He was not blind to the advantages he had over most of the wizarding world. After all, he had been born as a Nott, one of the oldest families in the continent, who had come to Britain over a thousand years previously. There was a reason why his family was feared. Their family magic was mighty and could turn the tides of a battle. They were the personification of the night, with control over shadows that was downright terrifying.

It was why Tom Riddle had done his best to recruit him. Cassius was tempted to tell him to go fuck himself, but his father, a rather pretentious man that wrote that ridiculous book about blood purity, urged him to be closer to the boy. Apparently, he had found out that Riddle was a descendant of Slytherin, probably from the parent of one of Cassius' colleagues, and wished the boy would have followed his ancestor's legacy and tried to keep wizarding blood pure.

Oh, the boy was far more talented than any mage he had ever seen and had a sharp mind to use his talent adequately. Honestly, if it wasn't for his insane arrogance and pride, the boy would have grown as one of the big players in wizarding politics. A few innovations could easily have granted him a couple of Orders of Merlin, and with them a seat in the Wizengamot, and after revealing himself as a Parselmouth, before slowly taking over the traditionalist faction.

Unfortunately, the boy disappeared after graduation, only coming back decades later, to ask to be the new Defence Professor at Hogwarts. He was different then. More unstable, his sharp mind was still there, but it was less, for the lack of a better description. More than that, he was fucking terrifying. Cassius could have only guessed what the man had done to himself. He could see the signs of over a dozen different rituals, and he just felt wrong.

Still, the man offered a way to stop Dumbledore's rising influence and his systematic destruction of what it meant to be a wizard. Cassius foolishly agreed and he ended up serving as a subordinate to a man whose sanity was slowly diminishing, and Dumbledore's influence hadn't even been affected in any significant way. Thankfully, Riddle kept Cassius out of most raids, preferring to rely on his financial support, which would have been gone if he had perished in a mission gone bad. Cassius did his best to delay siring an heir for that reason only, waiting until the very last years of the war to have Theodore, his son.

All in all, the most involved he had been with Riddle's physical attacks, was when had to use his darkness to hide other Death Eaters during a few critical raids and cover their escape.

So, when Riddle got himself blown up by Longbottom, there wasn't a shred of proof about Cassius' involvement because outside of being in the same political party, no one could say for sure that he was a Death Eater.

Of course, Lucius bought his way out of prison, and ended up as the new leader of the traditionalist faction, before being murdered by the smiling killer, making Nott the de facto leader. Sure, it took a little manipulation to formalize the entire affair, like making sure that the Malfoy brat and his mother wouldn't really attempt to do anything, but other than that, he already had enough blackmail on the rest of the faction for anyone else to even try to stop him.

Because that's what Cassius did. He wasn't a master dueller, even if his family crest was very powerful and he had more control over it. No, what he relished was pushing people around like small pieces on a chessboard. He learned to understand them, find their weak points, their dirty laundry, and offer enough incentive for them to follow his orders. 

And now, with Dumbledore's political downfall, his faction was bound to get more influential, and a few of the bills that the old man pushed could finally be reserved. It was why the Nott patriarch agreed to give Rookwood and Dolohov enough gold to hire a small army of mercenaries, he had hoped to put more pressure on Dumbledore.

Still, he never expected the old man to lose his political power in the span of a single event and now he had to push forward as much as he could until the old man inevitably got back into power. He knew the likes of Albus Dumbledore. This little public scandal would never be enough to keep them down.

This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and he was more than ready to grasp it with both hands, "Hello, Cassius. It's been a while."

And just like that, his dreams burned into nothing before him as he recognized who the voice belonged to, "Lily Potter. You do understand that the purpose of wards is to stop people from getting into a place."

"Yes, they're quite nice, your wards. And it's Lily Evans now. You know, with the husband dead and all."

Yes, Lily Evans was one of the most Cassius' greatest mistakes. The young woman had found out about him when he was trying to gather information about Severus Snape, who had been an up-and-coming Potion master. Having someone of his skill in his service would have been a good idea. He found out about the boy's father's abuse and how he had practically neutered the man's ability to think after the suspicious death of his mother, Eileen Prince. The muggle authorities thought the man had some kind of sudden case of Alzheimer's, but they didn't understand why he was always in pain.

That's when he realized that it wasn't the Snape boy who was responsible, but his Mudblood friend. The girl honestly reminded him of Tom Riddle, before his madness that is. There was this determination and intelligence that was just too familiar. And of course, the woman had found out about the fact that he purposely hadn't sired an heir and was threatening to bring the evidence to the Dark Lord.

He ended up folding and agreed to give her knowledge about Death Eater attacks and leaving the Snape boy alone. Then Evans got married to the Potter boy for some reason and ended up being purposefully hunted down by the Dark Lord for an unknown reason. She had probably done something drastic to gain his complete attention.

"Speaking of dead people, how are you still alive? Why wait so long to reveal yourself?"

The woman chuckled, "I was trapped. You see, I was working on some very advanced magics when I was attacked. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night with an actual army on your doorstep and all you have is your useless husband, his idiot friend, and your baby. I tried using a ritual on the fly like they did in the old days. Let me tell you, I have no idea how they did this for most of their magic. Anyway, Sirius Black ended up interfering in the ritual and destabilized it. Both Harry and I were supposed to have been safe from the attack, and thankfully my son ended up safe, but the protection was split between me and Black, and the fragile balance of the attack was destroyed. We ended up with Godric's Hollows on fire, Sirius being torn into two, constantly feeling pain, and me being stuck on the other side, waiting for someone to open the way back."

And just like that, Cassius started to get an idea of what the ritual did, "Are you insane? You were playing with dimensional magic, hoping to use the energy in another dimension to cast spells. Do you have any idea what could have happened, what could have gone through?"

The redhead simply shrugged, "I'm not an idiot, Cassius. I wasn't planning on using it anytime soon, but I had no other choice."

"And how did you return then?"

"My son was the key. When he killed Black, the ritual's initial parameters were stabilized, leaving me enough room to come back. However, I'm not here to talk about my time in that place. I'm here because we have some unfinished business."

Cassius stiffened, "What are you talking about?"

"You mean the fact that you were the one who convinced the Lestranges to attack me, in the hopes that I would somehow know what happened to their precious Lord. You're a clever man, Cassius, you really are. I've dealt with a lot of people, monsters, murderers, but you were always different. A shark, the pressure points of half the country on the tip of his finger. You could destroy lives with just a letter and an owl. And look at you, you have risen so highly… Head of the traditionalist faction… Knowing is owning, right? It's too bad you forgot one single thing."

"And what is that?"

Cassius tried to summon a sword of shadows which was immediately snuffed into nothing as he swung it at the redhead, "Sometimes, people just don't have a pressure point. You're always assuming that the world is a rational place when humanity in its nature is bestial and irrational. It was probably why you never could exert any control over Voldemort. He wouldn't have cared about your blackmail, just as I don't care about whatever you had on me. Did you truly think that there wouldn't have been any repercussions for your betrayal?"

Damn it, she knew. After Riddle got himself blown up and Cassius was sure he wouldn't be prosecuted, he realized that Evans' leverage over him was gone. He saw how distraught Bellatrix and her husband were over the faded Dark Mark and its significance and told them that the Dark Lord might have been targeting the Potters for a reason, that they might know what had happened to him. They practically jumped at the idea of 'interrogating' the Potters and terrified Wormtail into submission with just a few words. They hired the members of the inner circle that were near and attacked Godric's Hollow. It had worked out splendidly with everyone involved ending up dead except for a toddler, that is.

There were no loose ends, and Cassius won. Or so, he had thought.

Yet now, Lily Evans stood next to him, like an angel of vengeance, holding his life in her hands, "Oh, did the cat get your tongue? It wasn't hard to see who would have done something like this. The Lestranges and Crouch were Voldemort's attack dogs. They barely knew how to function without their master telling them what to do. So, I'm asking you, now, Cassius, are you the reason why I missed twelve years of my child's life?"

The older wizard trembled and didn't answer. The magical pressure was just too much, and he could barely even think of any excuse. The redhead's grin widened, "Thought so. Now, the main question is what to do with you. I could just kill you; I could end your magical line entirely. Now, that would be a good punishment for a family known to be concerned with blood purity."

"Killing me would be a waste, right? Surely, we can come up with some kind of arrangement, one that would benefit you," the Nott Patriarch begged, his mental facilities finally returning.

"See, that's what I like so much about you, Nott. You have such a rational mind, trying to understand an irrational world. And you're right, I do need resources. My son decided to not risk any funny business and put every bit of gold he had in a personal account. He probably didn't trust Arcturus Black. He's such a clever boy, isn't he?"

"He is. If it's gold you need, I am more than ready to provide you…"

He was interrupted when his head froze as if it was petrified. The redhead knelt now and looked him in the eyes, "Oh, this isn't just about gold. From this day forward, I own you. I own the Nott family and everything else it entails. And if I just see any sign of treachery, any attempts at hindering any of my plans, I will make you watch as I burn every bit of legacy this house has to the ground, killing you after realizing that you have nothing left in this world. Trust me, I'll be watching."

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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.