Fear of a Name

Chapter Six: Hogwarts

The snapping sound turned out to be the man (who, according to his case, was Professor R J Lupin) breaking off some chocolate for all of us.
"Here," he said, handing particularly large pieces to Harry and me. "Eat it. It'll help."
The others ate theirs immediately, but I was always wary about accepting food from strangers, especially sweet tasting things, which the chocolate seemed to be. I had never had chocolate before, but I knew what it looked like from the time I had seen Draco Malfoy eating it when we were both about seven.
"Eat," repeated Professor Lupin, looking at my face searchingly. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me..."
He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.

"Are you sure you're ok, Harry?" a girl with very bushy, brown hair asked. I guessed this was the Hermione that Ginny had nearly walked into earlier.
"I don't get it... what happened?" said Harry, wiping his face.
"Well — that thing — the Dementor — stood there and looked around... I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face — and you — you—"
"I thought you were having a fit or something," said the red haired boy, who looked scared.

"You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching—"
"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked towards the Dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione. "And he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned round and sort of glided away..."

"It was horrible," said the boy whose foot I had sat on earlier, in a high voice. "Did you feel how cold it went when it came in?"
"I felt weird," said the red haired boy. "Like I'd never be cheerful again..."
"But didn't any of you — fall off your seats?" said Harry awkwardly.
"No," said the red haired boy, looking at Harry. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though..."

I knew why this was; I had heard my father punishing Lucius Malfoy a couple of months ago because of something to do with Hogwarts. I had heard Ginny's name mentioned, and 'the Chamber of Secrets' too, whatever that was, and words like 'possessed' and 'basilisk' had also been shouted by my father.

Then Professor Lupin came back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said to me, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..."
I took a bite, and suddenly I felt warmth spreading through my body.
"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, Harry and Ivory?"
Neither of us asked how he knew our names.
"Fine," muttered Harry, looking embarrassed, and I nodded.

As Lupin left, Ginny looked at me again. "Everyone, this is Ivory. Ivory, this is Hermione," she said, pointing to the girl with the bushy, brown hair, "that's Ron, my older brother—" she pointed at the boy with red hair "—that's Neville—" this time she pointed to the boy whose foot I had sat on "—and this is Harry." She blushed slightly as she pointed to Harry.
"Hi," I muttered awkwardly, looking at my oh-so-interesting shoes. They all said hi back, and then nobody spoke.

It stayed that way for most of the rest of the journey, until finally the silence was broken by the arrival of the train at the station, when there was a rather large scramble to get out onto the platform. Everyone left their trunks on the train, but I took my purse — which had everything in it — with me, knowing things could get pretty nasty if someone else picked it up.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a loud voice yelling, "Firs' years this way! All righ', you three?"
I spun around and looked through the freezing cold rain that was pelting down on us, clearly seeing a huge man who must've been at least twelve foot tall. I knew in an instant that he had giant blood in him, a half giant most likely. My father had sent a few Death Eaters to see giants on a couple of occasions, so I knew that this possible half-breed was far too short to be a full giant, and far too intelligent as well, by the sounds of it. I saw Harry, Ron and Hermione wave at him, and I battled my way through the crowd to get closer to them.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione," I said, trying not to be pulled away from them in the current of people flowing away from the platform. "Where do we go now?"
"To the carriages, c'mon," Ron replied.
I followed them to the carriages, each with a black horse with a skeletal body and bat-like wings stood in front. They looked kind of deathly, like my middle name, but they had a sort of beauty about them that made me want to hug them all.

"What're those things pulling the carriages, Hermione?" I asked, watching them as they pawed at the ground, impatient to be off.
"What do you mean? There's nothing there... the carriages are pulling themselves, like always," she said, a look of puzzlement on her face.
I reached out and stroked the winged horse, confused that I could see it and nobody else seemed to be able to, but I put these thoughts out of my mind as we climbed into a carriage and started to move away.

About ten minutes later, we were getting out of the carriage at Hogwarts when I heard a cold, drawling voice, a voice I recognised immediately.
"You fainted, Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?"
"Shove off, Malfoy," said Ron.
"Did you faint as well, Weasley?" said Malfoy loudly. "Did the scary old Dementor frighten you, too, Weasley?"
"Leave them, Malfoy," I said in a quiet voice that immediately got his attention.
"Well, well. If it isn't Riddle," Malfoy sneered. "Heard from Daddy lately, Riddle?"

I bit my lip and looked at the floor, willing him not to say any more. I hadn't told Ron or Hermione that I was a Riddle, and I could see them looking at me in fear, like so many others when they find out who I am.
"Spending your time with Potter, a blood-traitor and a filthy Mudblood?"
"DON'T CALL HER THAT!" roared Ron, making many people turn to look at him in astonishment.
"Leave it, Ron," said Hermione quietly.
"Is there a problem?" said a mild voice. I looked up, and saw that Professor Lupin had just got out of the next carriage.

Malfoy stared at Lupin, no doubt taking in the patches on his torn and frayed clothes, and his battered suitcase. With a small tint of sarcasm in his voice, he said, "Oh, no — er — Professor."
He smirked at two boys behind him before turning back to me. "Your father will be hearing about this," he hissed, then he swaggered up the steps into Hogwarts castle, the two boys in tow.

"What did he mean, 'Heard from Daddy lately'?" Harry asked me questioningly, looking confused.
"Um... well... he... umm... I..."
Thankfully, Hermione interrupted by saying, "It doesn't matter, Harry, you obviously can't trust her anyway."
"Why not? I trust her, Hermione, and so should you. You don't even know her!"
"But, Harry, she's—"
"Voldemort's daughter, I know," he replied calmly.
My mouth fell open in shock. He had said my father's name without even a shadow of fear!

"What's the matter?"
"You — you just said his name... Nobody says his name, nobody; they're all too scared!"
"B-but don't y-you?" Ron asked, shaking slightly.
"No, he for — um... prefers that I call him Father," I answered, hoping they hadn't noticed my mistake.
"O-oh," said Ron, still shaking.
"Honestly Ron, there's no reason to be scared of her," Harry said to him, sighing. "You've only known her for twenty minutes! You don't even know if she's like her father at all, and I don't think she is, or she'd probably have tried to kill Hermione and me by now."
"Oh, right."

We all finally climbed the steps into Hogwarts and headed for some big doors, but before we could get there, I heard someone calling, "Potter! Granger! R-Riddle! I want to see you three!"
I turned around and saw a stern-looking witch in emerald green robes, with her hair in a tight bun, and square spectacles framing her sharp eyes. She was calling over the heads of the other people, looking right at us as we fought our way over to her. I was scared — had I done something wrong already? I really didn't want to be thrown out of Hogwarts before I had even been sorted; Father and Mother would hurt me badly, and Draco would never let me forget it.

"There's no need to look so worried — I just want a word in my office," she said, which didn't help the feeling of dread that was quickly making its way through my body. "Move along there, Weasley."
Hermione, Harry and I followed her, and I was sure my heart could be heard clearly by everyone, it was beating so loudly. My face grew paler and paler, finally draining of colour completely as we stepped into her office.